Dakota Michelson: A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction
by dakotamichelson
Summary: After an unfortunate turn of events and the Great War of 2077, Dakota Michelson must learn and adapt to living in the dangerous and radiated wasteland of the Commonwealth.
1. Chapter 1: The Awakening

Dakota Michelson  
A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction  
Chapter 1

I woke up in a panic and fell to the ground. I began shivering violently. As my thoughts gathered, I realized I was frozen and thawing out. The cold ground felt warm to me and I clung to that warmth as much as I could. Feeling began to return soon and a scream of pain escaped my mouth. The pain spread from my chest out to my limbs and became worse and worse with time. I realized that the scream would probably prompt someone to come in here, so I crawled to behind the pod in the corner of the room. I sat there for a while and realized I probably should stand up and move away from this cold floor. But then I think of the possibility of getting caught and frozen again. So I resolve that it's a good hiding spot and it doesn't feel that cold to me after all, even though I know it has to be cold because I see thin sheets of ice on certain areas of the ground.

I sit, wondering how I am even alive. I see several bodies in the cells…or pods, I guess that would be a more accurate word. They are all frozen, but I can tell that they are all dead because there are bullet holes in their heads. I want to know why Vault-Tec would do this. Why would they trick us into being frozen? Why would they kill us afterwards? I doubt I was alive due to a simple oversight, so maybe I'm next. I noticed that one of the pods had no one in it. The other pod had a woman, whom I distinctly remember her carrying a baby. Her husband (I presume) and the baby were both gone, and I could only imagine what Vault-Tec would do with them if they were willing to go this far.

As I sit behind the pod, waiting for my legs and arms to thaw, I direct my mind away from the pain. I reflect back on the terrible turn of events that led me here, all beginning with my mother's death. I was 18 and preparing for my first class at CIT. She was the only family I had left. I had no siblings and my father abandoned us when I was very young, so young I don't remember him leaving. The weight of her death took its toll on me and I decided it was best for me to leave my hometown of Boston, leave CIT, and start over somewhere else.

That somewhere turned out to be Washington, D.C. thanks to a job offering at RobCo Industries. I was stoked for the opportunity to make a difference in the technological field. I liked it there and it was a great opportunity for me to focus on something other than the recent tragedy that lingered in my head. Little did I know there was no future for me at RobCo, at least not with my current qualifications. Five years had gone by and I was still an Engineering Assistant. The work was nothing I had hoped for. Paperwork, organizing files and notes from the engineers, all mundane and unsatisfying. I wanted to feel like I could make a real difference in the technological world, but I was practically glued to my desk, unable to pursue my passion.

I decided I needed to return to school. I spoke to a counselor at CIT and to my surprise, they accepted me back. So there I was—on my way back to Boston. I steered away from my old neighborhood. I had spent the past five years avoiding Boston and over the years, that feeling subsided, but only marginally. I don't want to visit my old home and regret my decision. When classes started, I developed a routine that kept me busy. Very busy actually. So much information was being crammed in my mind. Then one day, a random guy knocks on my door.

The man says he is from Vault-Tec and that because of my enrollment at CIT, I was randomly selected for placement in the local vault: Vault 111. I thought it was strange, but he seemed pretty official and he didn't ask any questions that were too invasive, so I went with it. Better to be safe than sorry. Vaults were popping up left and right. It was all everyone talked about. They wished they could afford to get into a vault. For me, the thought never even crossed my mind. The scare of a nuclear war had been ongoing for such a long time, it seemed unlikely that a war would happen anytime soon.

A few weeks later, I woke up. Just a regular Saturday and for once, I had nothing planned and no work to do. I decided to sit down, watch the news for a bit, and maybe head out for some brunch. My heart dropped. I didn't really believe it at first, but I knew I had to act fast when I heard the news anchor report confirmed nuclear detonations in New York and Pennsylvania. "The Vault!" I thought to myself. I ran outside faster than I ever had ran before. I jumped onto my bicycle and made my way to Vault 111. When I got there, I must have been trying to get off the bike but keep pedaling at the same time, because I landed on the ground in front of the soldier blocking entrance to the vault.

At a loss for words, the only thing I could make out was "Dakota Michelson". He looked at this list and let me proceed. I ran onto the platform, stood there for a little while and thought "why aren't they letting us in yet?" I realized they were waiting for more people still. Some were elderly and some were young. I saw a couple with a baby running towards us—the missing man and baby.

Then there was a noise. The noise was so loud it took me a second to comprehend what it was. I turned around and saw the cloud. It almost seemed like everything was moving in slow-motion, except it wasn't, because everything was happening so fast that I couldn't make sense of the thousand thoughts moving around in my head. Within a few seconds, the cloud was outside of my vision and we were inside the vault.

I made it.

Then I collapsed onto the floor. I was awake, but felt unable to move, at least for a few seconds or so. Then everything went black.

It probably has been over two hours since I woke up and escaped from the pod and no one has come. I was able to move my legs finally, so I stand up, using the side of the pod for support. The pain is dull, but it is nothing compared to before. I decide it is time for me to find out what happened here and find the exit. I pick up a pipe I see lying on the ground. The pipe is too cold for me to hold, so I pull the sleeves of my Vault 111 Jumpsuit over my hands as a sort of mitt. The door opened when I walked in front of it and I peeked my head out into the hall. No signs of anyone. I start to retrace my footsteps and remembered that it was straight down the hall. Still no one. I opened the other doors to find more pods with dead people in each one. One of the doors opens up to another hallway and I walked down it.

I then see a corpse. Well, skeleton would be more accurate. There wasn't a trace of skin or muscle left, which leads me to think it's been sitting here for a long time. I'm not sure what I am more frightened of: being in a vault full of frozen corpses and skeletons or the realization that I have been frozen for a very long time. I find the vault door and am surprised to see that the door is open already. I walk to the elevator, press the call button and step on to the platform. My heart was pounding so hard. I know that whatever I see outside won't be good. When I got to the top, I could not believe it. Nothing could have prepared me for what I see now.


	2. Chapter 2: Out of Time

**Dakota Michelson**

 **A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction**

Chapter 2: Out of Time

I fell to my knees. Everything is gone. The buildings are ruined. All of the trees are dead. Most importantly, there is no sign of life in sight. It is so quiet and ominous. "Am I the only one left?" I asked myself. "No... I can't be." I knew that there had to be some life out here. I began to walk back to where I first entered the fence. The place I fell down in front of the soldier. I couldn't help but to think, "Maybe my bike is still there." When I got to the fence, not only was the bike nowhere to be found, but even the land look slightly different. I don't remember there being these small hills before. Maybe the explosion shifted the terrain. That was the more positive of the two thoughts crossing my head, the other thought being "has it been that long?"

I passed a neighborhood of ruined houses and a ruined bridge. I saw a ruined gas station off in the distance. As I am thinking these things, I decide I should not say "ruined" anymore, because "ruined" seems to be the default state of everything; it should just be implied.

I have no idea where I am going or what I am going to do, so I figure the best thing to do is to go back to where my old apartment was and see if anything is left. If my memory serves me right, Cambridge is pretty close by. The sun is already starting to set and I wonder what time it is. If it will be getting dark soon, I should hurry. I am already scared of something bad happening at this time and I know it will be worse during the night. So instead of my slow pace that I am walking now, I decide to pick up the pace and come to a light jog.

I start finding some familiar landmarks and I know I am going in the right direction. "Shouldn't be too much further" I tell myself. I still have seen no sign of life up to this point and I begin to panic. "There's got to be someone." I keep running and eventually I reach my apartment complex. It is severely damaged, but the structure seems mostly intact.

I enter into the lobby, littered with rubble and glass shards. I glance at the elevator and chose not to even try them. Even if it works, I'd rather not take the risk of it falling or malfunctioning. As I approach the stairs, I start to hear a voice. "Someone is up there!" I think to myself excitedly. I begin to run and find two people sitting in one of the apartments. The door is missing.

The two people look at me and make a face at each other. I'm not sure why they did that, but I ignore it. I'm just glad I am not the only person alive. The man looks over at the woman and says, "Well look what we have here. A vault dweller!" I begin to speak to ask them for help, but I'm interrupted. The woman pushes a gun that is sitting on the table toward the man and says, "You want to take care of this?" I stop in my tracks. The man looks back at me and tells her "I won't need that. I'm gonna have fun with this one" and picks up a knife. My eyes widen and I turn around and run down the stairs. I can hear his footsteps behind me. The man yells, "Don't run! I'll make this nice and quick." I run out of the apartment complex and I can hear the woman yelling out from the window. She's cheering him on. The man throws something at me and it lands right in front of me, but I quickly move around it. He threw something else, a rock maybe. It slams into my back, but I keep running anyway. If I stop, it will be the last mistake I ever make.

I turn around a corner and see a police station with some fortifications set up around it. They must have been there from before the bomb. I figure that would be a better place than any to go to. With any luck, I can find a gun inside. I run and slam the door behind me, then run further inside. Another man is inside. He yells, "What the hell?" Then the door slams open. The man from inside the police station pulls his gun out and shoots the other man right in the head and he falls to the ground. He then points the gun at me.

"Who are you?" he asks. "Please don't shoot!" I say. "My name is Dakota. I'm from Vault 111." He squints his eyes and asks, "And what are you doing here?" Between breaths, I respond, "I didn't think anyone was here."

He lowers his gun and a woman walks in from another room. "Who's this?" she asks. "Some stray from Vault 111," he says. The woman seems friendly and walks closer to me. Despite this, I take a step back anyway and she notices my reaction. "Don't worry. We won't hurt you. I'm Scribe Haylen, Brotherhood of Steel. Over there is Knight Rhys. And you are?"

Leaning against the wall for support, I say, "Dakota." She looks very carefully at me, like she is examining me. "Are you hurt?" she asks. I shake my head and say, "No. Just out of breath."

"Lay down over here," she tells me. Rhys turns to her and says, "That's Keane's bed." He gives me a cold glare. Haylen gives him a glare back and I stay back and watch this awkward situation play out in front of my eyes. Rhys just turns away and walks through a broken wall into another room of the station. Haylen looks at me and nods, so I get up and walk over to the sleeping bag. "Thank you," I say to Haylen. She shoots a small smile at me and then walks over to the room where Rhys was.

I lay down and decide to take a nap, but it's no use. There are too many things racing through my mind. I try rolling over to see if that helps and I see two shoes in front of me. I look up and see that it's Haylen. She asks, "You alright?" I'm not sure how to answer that question. I guess that means that I'm not alright, but I'm not sure if I should tell her why, so I shrug my shoulders. She sits down next me and asks, "Rhys says you're from Vault 111. What happened? Why leave?" I look up at her and decide I can at least tell her about Vault 111.

"I was frozen in there. The Vault tricked all of us into thinking we were entering decontamination pods, but they were cryogenic pods." Her expression changed from worried to surprised. I sit up and ask her, "What's today's date?" She pauses for a second, maybe to prepare for my reaction. "November 6, 2287," she says. My heart drops and I look down at the ground. "Dakota?" she says. I'm shaking. I manage to get a small chuckle out and think that life must be playing some kind of sick joke on me. I look up at her.

"That means that I am two hundred and thirty three years old."


	3. Chapter 3: Recruitment Sort of

**Dakota Michelson**

 **A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction**

Chapter 3: Recruitment... Sort of...

I tried sleeping. I think eventually I did, but it wasn't long until I heard the door to the police station slam open. I am startled, but I don't move. I think maybe it would be advantageous to catch the intruder off guard and attack if they thought I was asleep. Or maybe I am just too scared to move and I am trying to justify my actions. The footsteps from the door are loud and heavy and… metallic? Like some sort of robot burglar. I hear another set of footsteps from behind me and I recognize them as Haylen's footsteps. She has a light step, good for sneaking around if she tried. I hear her whisper and then more footsteps.

The metallic footsteps get closer and closer to me and I begin to panic. But I decide to keep still. It was a man's voice I heard. "Who's this?" he asks. Haylen responds, "Some stray from Vault 111. Stumbled in here trying to run away from a raider."

There was a pause for a little while and then the thundering footsteps walk away with Haylen following. Her voice gets louder with some sort of excitement. "And guess what? Our guest is pre-war." The man seems confused and retorts, "What!?" She answers, "Yep. It turns out Vault 111 was some sort of cryo lab." He grunts like he might find that fact interesting, but is tired. "We'll have to pay that vault a visit."

I shudder at the thought of returning to that place. Then I begin to wonder another thought. Where else can I go? I have no home and I'll probably be thrown out of here in the morning. I don't even know where the nearest sign of civilization even is.

Then I suddenly wake up and look around. I guess I must have fallen asleep while I was deep in thought last night. Haylen looks over at me and says, "Good morning, sunshine." I sit up and realize another person is snoozing away in the sleeping bag next to me. It's the intruder from last night, I figure. As soon as I look over, Haylen whispers sharply, "Don't wake him." I give her a look to acknowledge her request.

Haylen walks over and sits down on the ground besides me. "So what's next for you?" The 1 million dollar question. "I don't know," I reply. "I don't know anything about this new world. I don't even know where I would go." I realize I'm starting to get louder and Haylen gives me a look that easily tells me to shut up. She then looks down and I can tell she is deep in thought. She asks, "What skills do you have?"

"Skills?" I ask. "Umm… well I am good with technology. I used to work for Robco before the war." Haylen gives a surprised look. "Wow, that's great. You didn't look like the technological type to me though." "Well it is true," I assure her. "Ever fire a gun?" she asks. "No. Never," I say. She leans in and says, "You might want to learn. The world is a dangerous place."

Haylen and I get up and get splits part of her breakfast with me. I think to myself that I'll probably never find this courtesy anywhere else. I reach in my pocket and realize my wallet is still in there. I open it and find a little over $220 in cash. Haylen gives me a concerned look and says, "Ohhhh no. That currency is worth close to nothing anymore. You need to earn some caps." "Caps?" I ask. "Like bottlecaps?"

Haylen nods. "Look. I'm not guaranteeing anything, but if you're willing to help us, you could join us. You'd be safer and better off than wondering the Commonwealth by yourself." "The Commonwealth?" I ask. "It's not called Massachusetts anymore?" Haylen lets out a small laugh and says, "No, it's not called Massachusetts anymore."

I have to take this opportunity. I never wanted to join any military operation. Ever. But what are my options? I have nothing. I know nothing. I need the support the Brotherhood offers me.

I ask, "What do you need help with?" Haylen smiles and says, "So you will help? Glad to hear it. For starters, I could use some help installing this Deep Range Transmitter that Paladin Danse brought back last night. We need this to call for reinforcements. Come on. Let's go to the roof."

Haylen and I work together for a while and I can't help but think how great it is to be working with technology again. This may work out better than I first thought.

After a while, I hear this loud growl/screech sound. I've never heard anything like it before. I look quickly at Haylen and she slides a rifle to me. "We have company," she says. I look down from the roof and see people limping toward the building. Except they don't look like normal people. "Shoot 'em!" Haylen yells.

I aim, but I am very shaky. I try to concentrate. I lock on to one of the creature's heads and fire. I am surprised to see that a bullet wasn't fired, but a laser. I look back down the sight of gun and find the original monster I tried to hit and realized I missed. I aim again and fire. The creature falls down to the ground, but several more are coming closer to the building. I aim and fire, aim and fire, aim and fire. I am pretty decent at firing the gun actually, but I'm out of bullets or whatever this guns uses and I have no idea how to reload the gun. I also realize I don't have any ammo. Luckily Haylen can tell by my lack of firing and passes some ammo to me. I try to figure out how to reload the gun and I lean on the small wire fence for support. All of a sudden, the fence falls over and I follow suit. My back hits the roof above the door of the police station and then again on the ground.

My vision is blurry for a second but quickly comes in to focus on one of the creatures right in front of me. I hear gunfire and the creature falls. "You alright?" Haylen yells. I am about to respond but see one of the creatures running, unlike the slow walking of the others. I close my eyes as I wait for almost certain death but then I hear another gun and heavy metal footsteps behind me. I look up and see Paladin Danse firing. He hits each monster with flawless precision. One shot to the head and they fall down.

I sit up and try to reload. It takes me a few seconds but I think I've just figured it out. I fire but nothing happens. "Damn it," I say to myself as I fumble with the rifle a little more. I try again and it fires. I stand up and move closer to the barricade in front of me. Aim, fire, aim, fire, aim, fire. Eventually it gets quiet.

I take a deep breath and I feel happiness that I made it through the attack. I also feel a sense of pride for being able to take a few of the creatures down. Danse turns around and looks at me.

"What the hell was that?" he yells. "What were you doing on the ground?"

I'm taken back by his questions and all I manage to get out is, "I fell-". Danse interrupts me and says, "Your carelessness almost got you killed." In just a few seconds, I am reminded of how I will never last in this world, especially not on my own. I doubt Danse would ever let me join the Brotherhood of Steel at all.

I walk over to the first creature I shot and examine it. "What the hell happened to it?" I think to myself. It was definitely human at one point, there's no doubt about it. I get back up and head to the doors of the police station. I hesitate about even opening them, but I do anyway. Haylen and Danse are talking and all I hear from Danse is, "Only going to slow us down." They both look at me and stop.

There's a long awkward silence. I walk forward and hand Haylen the rifle she gave me back and said, "Thanks for trying. It was great working with you." I turn around and begin walking towards the exit and Danse says, "Unless you're willing to go through some training."


	4. Chapter 4: Training

**Dakota Michelson**

 **A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction**

Chapter 4: Training

"Pathetic," Rhys scoffs. "You're not going to survive for long if that's how you think a gun is held."

"Enough!" yells Danse. "Knight, why don't you make yourself useful and patrol the area." "Yes, sir." Rhys says obediently.

I thought I did decent yesterday when the feral ghouls attacked. I guess my definition of "decent" is equivalent to "horrendous" to Rhys, and probably the others. But they have the decency to sugar-coat it.

Danse continues to train me on the basics of holding, firing, and reloading the rifle for the next few days. He then tells me that it's time to practice on real targets. Rhys reported ghouls in College Square station and left them "just for me".

Danse and I head out in the morning. It's very cold and snow covers the ground. The sun is out and when it isn't behind a cloud, the temperature is just right. Danse looks over at me as we approach the station. "Are you ready, Michelson?" "Yes, Paladin." I say. The lie comes out so easily, but I have no choice. I'm afraid saying "no" will lead to my banishment from the police station.

I open the door and we walk inside. It's dark and there are only a few working lights. Rubble, skeletons, and a few dead ghouls litter the room. The stench is overpowering. I hold my breath until we get past the corpses. We start walking down the stairs and I am startled when the intercom system plays a loud tone. It is followed by some garbled verbiage about what I assume to be safety and security information. We proceed down the stairs and I hear something. I freeze. "What now?" I think to myself, as if I don't know what comes next. I imagine Danse giving me some judging look at me from behind me. I crouch down and take slow, light steps. I see a ghoul from behind the corner up ahead. I aim… and… FIRE. I hit the ghoul's arm and it falls off. But that doesn't faze it. It growls and runs towards me. I shoot it in the face and it falls.

I feel proud that I've accomplished killing this one ghoul for just a split second when I see two more ghouls coming from that same corner. I aim carefully but quickly and shoot one in the head and it falls. I move the gun very quickly and shoot the other ghoul's leg. It breaks off and the ghoul falls, but it is slowly crawling towards me. I shoot once more and it is dead.

I look back at Danse to gauge his thoughts, but he is not an easy man to read. We move forward and see that there are two sets of stairs on either side. I decide to go down the right-hand side. I see a ghoul walking, but it hasn't seen me yet. I aim and fire, but I miss. Just like that, it and four other ghouls are alerted to my presence and they start running up the stairs towards me. I shoot at them and kill one of them but the others catch up to me. Danse helps and takes another one down. One hits and scratches my chest, but in the midst of the sudden chaos, I didn't even feel any pain. I just focus and shoot it right in the head. Pieces of its body splatter everywhere, even on me. Danse takes the last one down and when things start to calm down, the pain of the ghoul's scratch and the realization that I am covered in brain kick in. I quickly brush off pieces of the ghoul and resist the urge to vomit. Then the pain started to kick in. "Move forward," I think to myself. I have to convince Danse that I can handle this type of stuff if I have any hope of joining the Brotherhood.

We head through an old subway and in the only exit that was accessible was a corpse that looked fairly recent. I see a note sticking out of his pocket and my nosiness gets the best of me. I grab it and read out loud, "Ricca's dead. Only a couple of us made it inside. We couldn't hold the entrance – there were just too many. Only way we could go was down. We'll hole up for a few days, wait for the ghouls to move on, then get outta here."

"Terrible," I say to Danse. He says, "This is why we need to exterminate these abominations." I nod and we continue walking deeper into the station. We walk past a corner into what looks like an old storage room and there's a ghoul crouched down. This one looks a bit bigger than the others. It turns its head and spots me and it begins to run towards me. I aim and shoot it in the chest. It didn't seem to notice at all. I runs up and hits me so hard in the head that I fall down. Danse shoots it and it runs towards him instead.

While I was on the ground, I notice some strange colored liquid on the ground. Oil. My mind begins to work very quickly and I formulate a plan to use it to kill this ghoul. I tell Danse to get back. He listens and I stand up, get back, and fire at the oil. Just like I expected, it lights on fire. The burning ghoul growls but falls down rather quickly and dies.

I exhale a sigh of relief that my plan worked, but right then, there is an explosion and something hard punches me right in the gut and I fall down back down to the ground. I open my eyes to see a half of a fire extinguisher in front of me. I have a hard time catching my breath after the blow. Danse asks, "Are you alright?" I'm not sure how to respond at first. I know there's probably something wrong that Haylen should look at, but I don't want to admit that I'm hurt. Danse extends his hand to me for support and I grab it. He helps me up very easily and quickly, almost too quickly. His armor must grant him a tremendous amount of strength. "Let's head back to the station to have you looked at," he says. I am silent, but very grateful that he said that.

I'm glad that it's such a short walk to the police station. Danse has Haylen check out the damage and she says, "Well your prognosis is grim. It might be more humane to just take you out back and shoot you." Rhys chuckles. I do too because I understand her sense of humor, but I'm sure Rhys would genuinely like that scenario to play out. He'd even be the one to do it. "On a serious note, it's very minor. Probably just a little bit of bruising. You'll be okay." "Glad to hear it," I say.

Later that night, Haylen and I were sitting and talking on the roof of the police station. "-Guess I should have known better. All Rhys cares about is the Brotherhood. There's no room for me." "Maybe he will come around eventually. You never know." I tell her in an attempt to cheer her up. She chuckles skeptically and there's a long silence.

"You know, I joined the Brotherhood under circumstances that were not too different from yours. Well… not saying I was frozen for two centuries, but I signed up seeking protection. While I agree with the Brotherhood's message and vision for the future, their methods leave a lot to be desired. Instead of diplomacy, the leadership wields violent confrontation to exert control. I became a field scribe so I could try to avoid the violence. I'm not trying to convince you to leave by any means, but I thought you should know what you're getting yourself into.

I nod and we just sit there in silence for a few minutes. It's so peaceful. There are no clouds in the sky and no light pollution, so I can see hundreds of stars. I think to myself that this is an unexpected benefit. There are no distractions and so enjoying a nice night like this is possible. I don't miss all the late nights of work and cramming for tests. This is nice.

For the first time since I left Vault 111, I have hope that I can make this new life work for me and I can survive out in the Commonwealth.


	5. Chapter 5: Quartermastery

**Dakota Michelson**

 **A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction**

Chapter 5: Quartermastery

Haylen has been giving me an idea of some of the technology she was tracking. I had never heard of most of it. "A haptic drive?" I asked her. She laughed. "Yes. If my sources are correct, it should be at the Chestnut Hillock Reservoir still. Although I'm not sure you're ready to be on your own yet. You should probably see if Danse is can go with you."

"That's not a bad idea," Danse says as we walks up to us from behind. "I think Michelson needs more experience being out in the field."

Danse walked past us and towards his power armor. I had never actually seen him get in and out of it before. I'd imagine you have to stand exactly in the correct position to avoid the suit pinching you… or worse. Danse turns around and asks, "Are you ready?" I'm taken back because I didn't think we would go right this minute, but I respond, "yes, sir."

I grab my laser rifle and we head out of the police station. Danse opens a gate that takes us behind the police station with ease. I wonder for a second what it feels like to be in power armor with all that strength and protection. It must feel like you can take on the world. Danse and I head south until we come up to a bridge. As we cross, I look at the building in front of us. "Beantown Brewery," I say out loud. "I could go for a drink," I say, trying to make small talk with Danse. He laughs very briefly and I turn around to see a small smile on his face, like he wants to smile but he is also trying to remain focused on the job. It's the first time I've seen any trace of emotion from him. "I doubt there is anything left in there," he says. "Probably right," I say. We continue to walk through a small forest. The wind is picking up and it looks like it might snow soon.

We eventually see a house and Danse says, "It must be there. I'm not sure where else it could be around here." As we approach some creature lifts off the ground. My eyes widen as I try to figure out what it is that I'm looking at. "A fly?" I say. It starts to fly toward us and it shoots something at me. In just one hit, Danse takes the large fly out, but then a sharp biting sensation begins in my arm. I look down and it's biting me. I smack it off of me with my other arm and it falls to the ground.

"What WAS that?" I ask Danse. "A bloatfly," he responds. "It's a large irradiated fly that shoots its maggots at its prey." My face went from slightly disgusted to extremely repulsed. That thing that was biting me was a maggot!?

Danse says, "Let's keep moving," and I snap out of it. The sky is starting to get dark and I realize that I never checked what time what time it was when we left the station. I'm sure Danse knows, but I decide not to ask him. If the time was alright to him when we left, I'm sure that he wouldn't want me questioning his judgment. We walk up to an old house and there's a rotting cow on the ground. But this cow has two heads.

I stare at the cow and Danse gives me a look and says, "It's a brahmin." He heads inside the house and I follow him desperately to get away from the fowl stench. "Let's split up and search the house," Danse commands. I nod and head towards the bedroom. There's just a sleeping bag, a duffle bag, and… A SAFE. That would be the most logical place.

I kneel in front the safe to get a better look at it but it looks like a pretty sturdy door and I don't know the first thing about picking locks. I search the duffle bag for a key, but no luck there. But I notice a wire on the wall and trace it right down to the safe. I follow the wire back and find that it leads to the terminal by the entrance of the house. To my surprise, the terminal is still intact and turns on.

This is right up my alley. Within a few minutes, I hack the terminal. By this time, Danse is watching me already. Good. I want him to see that I have _some_ sort of skill. I enter a command to unlock the safe and just like that, I hear a clicking sound in the other room. I get up and check it out. The door opens. Inside, there's a pistol, some ammo, a few documents, and some sort of device. I take all of it and hand the device to Danse.

"I take it this is what we were looking for?" I ask. "Affirmative," Danse says.

We leave the house and I notice that the sky has turned a very ominous green with clouds and what looks to be lightning in the distance. "Not good," says Danse. "It's a radiation storm. We need to find shelter!" I turn around and think "why not here?" but then realize this house is in terrible condition. We may as well be out in the open.

"Let's go!" Danse yells. I run alongside him but I don't know where I'm going. "Where to?" I ask. Danse responds, "Our station is a little further away from here still. Our best option is Diamond City."

"Diamond City? This must be a new settlement," I think to myself. We run around the lake and into the city. As we keep running, I hear gunfire and yelling. Then an explosion. A man yells, "Go to hell, super mutants!" My heart drops because I don't know what we are running towards. Super mutants?

I see several men in uniform that looks like an umpire's uniform, but it's been reinforced with armor. Danse and I lean up against the building and I peak my head around the corner. I see them. They are large, ugly humanoid beasts colored dark green. Lightning strikes nearby and I hear one of the beasts laugh. "You die now, human!" it says. Danse pushes me back and steps in front of me. "Stay here," he says. I nod.

He walks out and opens fire. He fires and hits each target with excellent marksmanship. I hear a few bullets hit his power armor, but he continues on like he didn't even notice. One of the injured super mutants falls off the building. If the gunshot wounds didn't kill him, the fall definitely did.

I feel useless. While Danse and the other men are being shot at, I'm just standing here. I decide to take my rifle and poke around the corner. I find one of them in the rifle's sights and fire. It didn't kill him but he dropped his weapon. Down it went, banging on a few poles of the scaffolding as it fell. The super mutant growled and something lands on the ground next me. It takes me only a moment to realize what it is. "Dakota!" Danse yells and I run as fast as I can. I don't think I've ever run this fast in my life, not even when I ran towards Vault 111.

The grenade explodes and I crouch down on the ground. I lie there for a second and then turn around. "Well, I'm still alive," I say in relief. I stand up and turn around. Danse is running towards me. "Are you alright?" he asks. I nod and see immediate relief in his face. "That was the last one," he says. "Let's go."

We run towards and I see signs that read, "PROTECTED BY THE WALL" and pictures of diamonds with an arrow pointing up. We walk through a large makeshift gate and into a courtyard. I see a woman standing outside of a green gate yelling through an intercom.

"What do you mean you can't open the gate? Stop playing around, Danny. I'm standing out in the open here, for crying out loud!" the woman yells. Danse walks toward the intercom and the woman is surprised. "There is a radiation storm coming. Let us in!" Danse says.

"All right! All right!" the voice on the intercom says. "Piper, just be warned. Mayor McDonough is really steamed. Sayin' that article you wrote was all lies. The whole city's in a tizzy."

The gate opens and a large man is standing in the entrance. "You devious, rabble-rousing slanderer! The level of dishonesty in that paper of yours! I'll have that printer scrapped for parts!" he says.

Piper retorts, "Ooh! Is that a state, McDonough? 'Tyrant mayor shuts down the press.'" She looks at me. "What do you think? Do you support the news? Because the mayor's threatening to throw free speech in the dumpster!" Danse and I give each other a confused look and I decide I don't want anything to do with this drama. "Look, I don't want to get involved…" I say, trying to hide my impatience.

McDonough looks over and says, "Oh I didn't mean to bring you two into this. Why don't you go on inside? I'm sure there's a room open in the Dugout Inn you can rent and get out of the storm."

"Thank you," I say. Danse and I move towards the gate as Piper and the mayor continue arguing. We walk up the stairs and the market place opens up in front of me. My jaw drops. "THIS is Fenway Park now?" Danse raises an eyebrow and says, "What?" We walk down toward the center of the marketplace. A little girl hands me a newspaper. "Free paper to newcomers!" she says. The paper headline reads, "The Synthetic Truth." I wonder if this is the paper that has that reporter is in trouble. I follow Danse as we walk towards a sign that says "DUGOUT INN".

We walk in and I see a lot of people in here. I suppose we can't be the only ones trying to get out of the storm. A man walks up to me asks, "Need a room?" The man has a very strong accent, which catches me off guard for a second. "Uh, sure." I respond. "10 caps," he says. Danse hands him the caps and he tells us that we are in room 2.

We walk in and I see there is only one twin-sized bed, which I have already decided that Danse will have. I look around the room while Danse gets out of his power armor. There's a couch that I can sleep on. I sit on the couch and Danse sits next to me.

Despite the loudness of the people in the bar of the Dugout Inn, it's relaxing to be sitting down and not in danger. "Michelson," Danse says. "We had a lot thrown at us today, but you kept your cool and handled it like a soldier. There's no doubt in my mind that you have what it takes to be in the Brotherhood."

I'm speechless. I was so afraid he would have sent me on my way when we returned, but here he is offering me to join his team. "Wow. I'm not sure what to say." Danse looks hard at me and says, "You have two options really. You can try to survive out here on your own, or you can join the Brotherhood and make a difference out here."

"Yes," I say. "But what will I be doing exactly?" "You'd be under my command, and I'd expect you to follow orders. You seem to know your way around technology better than most other initiates, so I think you would be better suited for the role of a scribe." A smile makes its way on to my face.

"I'd be honored to join."


	6. Chapter 6: Publick Occurrences

**Dakota Michelson**

 **A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction**

Chapter 6: Publick Occurrences

I woke up in my apartment. I open my eyes and see the bright blue sky peeking through the blinds covering the window. I get up to open the blinds and see people walking the streets, cars driving down the road, and the colorful trees which look like they are straight out of a painting. I turn the television on and walk over to the refrigerator to get something to eat. I look at the calendar on the fridge door and see in big bold letters "EXAM" on today's date. As I panic to search for my binder, the phone starts ringing. I answer it and hear my mother's voice on the phone. "Good morning Dakota," she says. "Morning," I respond back. She says, "-was wanting to see if you could stop by this morning. Haven't seen you in a while." "I don't know about today, ma. I've got an exam." In just that moment I hear something on the T.V. about a detonation. My heart drops and I turn around to look at the T.V. My mother is talking still but I'm no longer paying attention. I look outside the window and see a mushroom cloud in the orange sky and the blast from the bomb moving closer and closer and closer…

"Michelson!" I sit up, startled. "Are you alright, soldier?" Danse asks. I'm still trying to recover from the nightmare, but I nod yes anyway. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I look up at Danse and say, "I was back in my old apartment. Well, right before the bomb dropped and then I saw the cloud in the sky-."

Danse cuts me off by putting his hand on my shoulder. "It's alright. I won't make you relive it again." I give him a nod and he walks back towards his bed. "I'm going to check out my armor and make sure those damn mutants didn't damage it too badly. It shouldn't take long. We will head back to the station afterwards." "Yes, sir," I say.

I walk outside and see the bright blue sky. After the radiation storm, it is a welcome sight. I walk around the market and realize I must have been asleep for a while. The residents are eating noodles being served by a Protectron. "That's new," I say to myself. I decide to go ahead and try them. I walk up to it and it says something undecipherable. I say, "Huh?"

"Just say yes. It's all he understands," a voice says. I look over and see that it's Piper, the reporter from outside yesterday. "Yes?" I say as I hand over the caps. I take a seat next to Piper and it hands me a bowl of noodles. "So here's the deal, Blue. I want an interview." I raise an eyebrow and realize she is referring to the blue jumpsuit I'm wearing. "Your life story in print," she continues. "I think it's time Diamond City had a little outside perspective on the Commonwealth."

I look around see if Danse is nearby. I find him on the other side of the marketplace still working on his power armor. "All right. I'm in."

"Good. Let's get down to business. Tell me your name and a little something about yourself to give the readers some background," she says. "All right. My name is Dakota Michelson. I'm from here—well, here as in the Boston area. I was in Vault 111."

"How would you describe your time in the vault?" she asks. I chuckle at the question and say, "Well, I was only consciously in there for a very short time. They froze all of us in the pods. I only recently thawed out." Her eyes widen and she says, "Wait. They boxed you up in a fridge? The whole time? Are you saying you were alive before the War?" I nod. "Yes, I am 233 years old."

"Oh my god," she says excitedly as she scribbles some notes down on a notepad. "So. You've seen the Commonwealth. Diamond City. How does it compare to your old life?" I raise an eyebrow at her. "That's a tough question really…" I pause for a second. "There's so much violence and danger. The comfort of knowing that you are going to be alive tomorrow and the next day and so on is gone. All the luxuries and conveniences I used to take for granted have been destroyed. Besides that, the world looks so dead. No beautiful greenery or even fully intact structures anymore." I look up at Piper and see that excited look has been smacked away and replaced with a grim face. "Despite that…" I continue. "…It is not all bad. Seeing the world surviving despite all of these setbacks… well… it tells me that there's still hope. It tells me that we can get through this." "Wow. That's going to be a fun one to quote," she says. "Yeah… sorry about that. I guess I'm still adjusting. The memories of the old world are still very fresh for me."

"No, it's okay, Blue. I get it and you're alright. Now this next one's a bit different. How about we go into my office instead?" I nod and as I turn around I see Mayor McDonough walking towards us. If looks could kill, McDonough's angry glare would have demolished Piper into ashes.

We get into Piper's office and continue. "So you've met our 'wonderful' Mayor McDonough already. He's in charge of Diamond City Security Too often do they turn a blind eye on missing person cases. This and some other interesting facts I've learned led to the article that got me thrown out of the city. My point is that the threat of kidnapping is all but ignored in the Commonwealth. Everyone wants to pretend it doesn't happen. What would you say to someone out there who's lost a loved one, but might be too scared, or too numb to the world to look for them?"

"Wow. Um… I guess my first thought on that is 'How can people ignore kidnappings? That is something the authorities definitely should be looking into.'" Piper lets out a short chuckle. "Glad you're right there with me on that. I've been trying to find the real reason, but honestly, I don't have anything concrete yet. Everyone blames the Institute and the only reasonable explanation I can think of is McDonough is behind it. He's probably even a synth himself."

"What can you tell me about the Institute, Piper?" "Well… no one really knows who they are. Synths, or synthetic people are sent from their hidden labs to do the Institute's dirty work. Sometimes they even replace a person with a Synth double. A little covert agent no one would ever suspect. The first kind of synth is an obvious fake. Skin looks like plastic. Skeleton might even be showing. You see groups of them scouring the Commonwealth, killing people, and scavenging what's left. I reported on University Point a while back. Whole town got cleaned out. The second type of synth is the real deal. With skin, blood, warm smiles and guilty glances just like a good, old-fashioned human."

"That's insane. How could they even have survived the war with all of the technology intact?" Piper shrugs her shoulders and says, "No one knows where they are. It's not totally impossible to assume that they were somewhere far away that wasn't impacted by the bombs. Maybe all of this technology actually is post-war. Who knows?"

I look down as I take all of this information in. "I have one final request for you. I want you to make a statement to Diamond City directly. If you could say anything at all, what would you say?"

I think very carefully on what to say for this one. Whatever gets published will have my name written all over it… and by the way, I should ask Danse about getting some real uniform when we get back to the station, so I don't stick out like a sore thumb.

"It's obvious that there are lots of terrible threats out there to our survival. A lot of it is us fighting each other. That kind of bullshit is what caused the bombs to drop in the first place. We need to set aside these petty issues and work together. That being said, it seems we all have one common enemy here. The Institute. If they don't stop with these synths which threaten our survival, then they should be our main target."

I look up and see Piper's eyes widened. "Wow… Dakota. That was very moving." She writes down some notes. "I hope the readers will feel moved also. It's gonna take some time to put this all together, but I think your story is going to give Diamond City plenty to talk about. Hope you don't mind if I summarize that last part a bit."

I smile and nod and she walks me to the door. I head back to the room in the Dugout Inn and see Danse waiting for me. "Ready to move out?" he asks. "Yes, Paladin." I say. "Outstanding."


	7. Publick Occurrences: View from the Vault

**PUBLICK OCCURRENCES**

* * *

Whenever I take a walk through Diamond City, there are so many things people tell me to be grateful for. Purified water, working lights, electricity, security. True, what we have would have been unthinkable even a few decades ago. But it's easy to forget that, even after all the progress we have made, we are still living in the shadow of the world that was. A world before the threat of radiation. Before the Super Mutant and the Feral Ghoul and the synth.

So, as fortune often has it, I crossed paths with Dakota Michelson, ex-Vault Dweller. A person who is experiencing the Commonwealth for the first time. What would Dakota's fresh set of eyes say about how far we've come?

Before getting Dakota's input, we need some background info. To my surprise, I learned that Dakota is actually a pre-war Vault Dweller. Vault 111 residents were unknowingly placed into cryogenic suspension. Dakota only recently thawed out. So keep in mind that we are dealing with someone who has experienced both the old world and the new.

So what does Dakota have to say about seeing the Commonwealth for the first time?

"There's so much violence and danger. The comfort of knowing that you are going to be alive tomorrow and the next day and so on is gone. All the luxuries and conveniences I used to take for granted have been destroyed. Besides that, the world looks so dead. No beautiful greenery or even fully intact structures anymore. Despite that, it is not all bad. Seeing the world surviving despite all of these setbacks… well… it tells me that there's still hope. It tells me that we can get through this."

These words are painful, but honest. So much of civilization was lost when the bombs fell, and we have rebuilt without the comfort and security of the old Vaults.

After some conversation with Dakota, we got on the topic of the rumors and whispers that surround every missing person in Diamond City. The guilty looks we pass to mourning family members as we "thank the Wall that, this time, it wasn't us." You can end up dead in the Commonwealth for a million reasons. Why spend our time worrying about kidnappings?

It's easy for us to be cynical about the missing. We have spent so long knowing the Institute is out there, but knowing so little about them. They are not the only ones responsible for kidnappings, but the fact that they sometimes are, and the fact that we have been so powerless to stop them when they do, causes us to treat all victims of kidnappings as if they are a lost cause.

But the people left behind, those loved ones, friends, and neighbors who may never see the faces of those taken from them again, they do not have the luxury of being able to just look away. They have to carry that loss with them, even if everyone else tells them to move on and forget.

I asked Dakota to make a statement to everyone to get an outsider's perspective on our situation.

"It's obvious that there are lots of terrible threats to our survival," Dakota said. "A lot of it is us fighting each other. We need to set aside these petty issues and work together. It seems we all have one common enemy here. The Institute. If they don't stop with these synths which threaten our survival, then they should be our main target."

 **End**


	8. Chapter 7: Synthetic Anomalies

_Be sure to follow me on my main page, .com!_

 **Dakota Michelson**

 **A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction**

Chapter 7: Synthetic Anomalies

As Danse and I walk towards the exit of Diamond City, a little girl shouts, "Get your copy of the Publick! We expose the truth behind the Institute!" Just thinking about synths gives me a weird feeling. Once we leave through the gate of the city, I say, "Hey, Danse? What do you know about synths?" Danse sharply turns his head at me and there's a disgusted look on his face. "Synths are abominations created by the Institute. Their purpose is to 'improve' the human race," Danse says. I ask, "I've heard the Institute kidnaps people in the Commonwealth. Why would they want to do that?" "My guess is to replace people in the Commonwealth. It's how the Institute gets their intel. God only knows what they do with the originals."

We make it to the police station and walk inside. Haylen runs over to us with a look of panic on her face. "Paladin Danse! You're back. Are you alright?" she asks. "Yes. We had to retreat to Diamond City to avoid the radiation storm. But we're alright," Danse says as he takes his helmet off.

"While you've been out, I've been picking up anomalous energy readings. The occurrences are scattered, but I've noticed recently that a large amount of the instances are in the Fort Hagen area," she explains. "Any idea what these readings are?" I ask. "No idea. But whatever is causing these is using an extremely high amount of energy," says Haylen. Danse looks over at me and says, "We'll look into it."

We take a short break and Haylen hands me some ammo and a uniform. "It's a Field Scribe uniform. It's nothing compared to power armor, but it's better than walking in the Commonwealth with a Vault suit." I smile and say, "Thanks, Haylen."

We head back out and I follow Danse around a lake until we get to Fort Hagen. The front entrance is blocked, so we walk around the building and find an underground parking garage with an entrance into the building. As we walk in, I see a lot of debris and some skeletons lying on the ground. It's dark, but I see light coming from upstairs. We walk up the stairs and I begin to hear footsteps, but they sound metallic. We continue to walk up until we reach a hallway. "Wait," Danse says as we walks in front of me. He pokes his head around the corner and turns back to me and says, "Someone's in here." On the other end of the hallway, I see something walk towards us. It's a humanoid robot and I immediately recognize that this _thing_ is a synth.

The synth says, "Movement detected" and several other synths run towards us and start firing. I aim right at the first synth's head and fire, but it doesn't seem to faze it. I fire a few more times and it falls. I can tell killing synths won't be as easy as other enemies I've encountered. Danse stands in front of me to shield me. The lasers that the synths are shooting out don't seem to do much to Danse's power armor. I peak out from behind him and fire at another synth, but the synth didn't even move. It's almost as if it cannot feel pain. Danse fires at the same synth and it says, "Limb actuator damaged."

I fire at it again and it falls. Another synth comes out and Danse immediately shoots it in the head twice and it falls. The fallen synth's last words, "Asset Kellogg in danger." "Kellogg?" I say out loud. Then one of the synths shoots and hits my arm. Thanks to the uniform Haylen gave me, it feels only like a small burn. I hide back behind Danse who is impervious to the synths weapons as I reload my gun. Before I finish, Danse fires and the room is filled with silence.

I exhale and Danse turns around and asks, "Are you alright?" I nod and say, "Let's keep moving." We navigate the floor until we reach an elevator. As the elevator descends, I find myself practically squished against the wall since Danse and his power armor take almost the whole elevator.

When the elevator stops, we reach a dark tunnel with a chained door on the left. I unchain it and recognize the hallway as where we came in from. We continue down the hallway and see a synth and a turret ahead. "Get behind me," Danse says and I obey. He walks forward and shoots the turret first. The synth walks forward as well, but the turret explodes and takes the synth down with it.

All of a sudden, a voice echoes through the hallway. "I don't know who you are, but I'll give you one—and only one chance to leave." Danse retorts, "Negative. We're going to send you and your synths to Hell!" The voice chuckles and room goes silent again. We continue forward and then several laser turrets drop down from the roof, surrounding us. They start firing and I hide behind a table lying on the ground. When the one firing at me stops, I look over the table and fire three shots at it. I duck back down when it starts firing again. Danse is standing behind me to cover my back. I fire at the turret again and it explodes. The other turrets that Danse was shooting at were destroyed by the time I looked behind me.

We continue down long winding hallway knocking out the few turrets that are left. Surprisingly, we haven't seen any more synths. We make it into what looks like a bedroom. Probably the voice on the intercom's. Just look around it, I see a few containers, a table, and a few other objects I don't recognize. It all looks like something pre-war. It's all so clean, like it's never been tarnished by the radiation.

"Michelson?" Danse says. I look over at him and see he is heading through another door at the end of the room. We walk into a dark room and then all of the lights turn on. Synths are all over the room and they are aiming their guns right at us.

A man comes out into the middle of the room. He has a big scar on his left eye. "I warned you, but here you are anyway. You're way in over your head in ways you can't even imagine." I look around and see synths walking behind us. We are completely surrounded. "This is the end of the line for you." The synths start firing at us and I shoot back. Danse starts running into the synths that block the entrance and knocks them over. Then he stomps on its head. "Well, that's one way to do it," I think to myself.

I shoot another synth down and I feel that same burning sensation on my back. I let out a painful sigh and turn around quickly to see a synth right by me. I trip it and step on its arms. Then I shoot it in the head a few times. I look around the room and I cannot see the man with the scar. "Is he hiding?" I say to myself. Then I hear a shot and pain spreads all the way up my leg. I fall to the ground. "Not quite," the man says. I turn around and I still don't see him. Danse runs towards the area in front of me and tackles something. In that moment I see a shape of a man. It's transparent and distorts the surrounding. Danse has him pinned down and punches him. Then the illusion disappears and I clearly see him. Danse puts his laser rifle up to the man's head and shoots several times. I close my eyes and look away.

And just like that, the room is quiet again. The constant pain in my leg is worsening by the second. I look and see the bullet whole and blood all over. Danse says, "Are you okay?" and looks over at me. He looks panicked as he realizes I've been shot. He gets up and runs over to me. "Dakota!" I'm bleeding a lot and I'm starting to feel light-headed. He is doing something to my leg, but I can't tell. I feel too weak to move. However, I do feel him lift me up. Parts of his power armor arms are bumpy and jab into my back, but it feels strangely comfortable. I close my eyes as I feel myself doze off.


	9. Chapter 8: The Prydwen

Be sure to follow me on Tumblr!  
dakotamichelson . tumblr . com

 **Dakota Michelson**

 **A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction**

Chapter 8: The Prydwen

I wake up and hear a loud, continuous noise. It's familiar, but strange. I crack my eyes open and see the city. I'm startled and I open my eyes wider. I quickly sit up and look around and instantly feel the pain in my leg again. "Whoa! Calm down, soldier," Danse says as he puts his hand on my shoulder to steady me. I look at him with astonishment. "We're flying?" I ask. Until now, I had just assumed that planes and helicopters were wiped out in the war. Danse chuckles. And pulls me back towards the wall so I'm sitting upright, his bulky power armor arm still around me for support.

"Here," Danse says and hands me a stimpak. "This should help until we get to the Prydwen." I raise an eyebrow. "The what?"

He smiles at me and says, "We call our ship 'The Prydwen'. She's loaded with enough troops and supplies to mount a major offensive. If she's here, Elder Maxson's here. And that means we're going to war."

"War?" I asked. "Who are we going to war against? The Institute?" Danse nods. I say, "But we don't even know where they are, what they're capable of—" Danse interrupts, "It's likely that Elder Maxson already has a plan. I'm sure we will find out soon enough. For now, we need to get you to Knight-Captain Cade so he can operate on your leg."

As we board the Prydwen, Danse picks me back up and we enter the Prydwen. Some of the other soldiers give a weird look but Danse quickly explains my injury.

He takes me to see Knight-Captain Cade, the Prydwen's medical officer. He gives me some anesthetic and works on removing the bullet from my leg. Danse stood by me during the procedure, making casual conversation with Cade. I couldn't feel anything happening in my leg, but I couldn't bring myself to look.

After Cade wrapped my leg, he instructed Danse to carry me up to my bed. He followed with a wheelchair. Before Cade leaves, he tells me that he will be back to check on me and I am not to leave my bed until he allows it.

I lay in my bed for hours and hours on the top of the Prydwen as instructed and I find myself growing restless. Nothing really happened here except for Cade occasionally coming to check up on me and shoot another stimpak into my leg. I look over to my left and see someone else walking towards me. He has a large scar across his face. This must be Elder Maxson.

"So you must be the initiate that Paladin Danse speaks so highly of," he says. He sits on a chair next to me. "I am Elder Maxson. Tell me, initiate, what you think of the synth situation in the Commonwealth."

I look down and say, "Well, I've seen the early model synths. They are relentless and wield strong laser weapons. I've only heard stories of the newer synths though. They kidnap people in the Commonwealth and replace them with synth versions of them, probably to gain intel I suppose. But whatever the Institute has in mind with these synths, the Commonwealth won't survive if this chaos continues."

"Good," Maxson says. "Then you already know why we are here. The Institute must be stopped before this gets even more out of hand. These synths, old or new models, are dangerous and could prove to be the world's undoing again. Besides that, the notion that a machine can be granted free will is offensive. But if it isn't harnessed properly, it could wipe out humankind altogether. That being said, the Brotherhood is here to prevent a war between the Institute and the Commonwealth by starting a war of its own. The difference is our war won't reduce civilization to ashes."

"I understand," I say. He continues, "Paladin Danse's reports indicate your thoughts on the Brotherhood. He seems to think you'd be an asset to us. Given that he is one of my most respected field officers, you couldn't ask for a better recommendation. Therefore, from this moment forward, I'm granting you the rank of Field Scribe. You will continue to report to Paladin Danse and assist his unit. Most of our field scribes are medics, but I have a very specific plan for your unit and Scribe Haylen reports that you know your way around technology. So you'll assist them in that regard. In the meantime, you are to stay here and recover until Captain Cade clears you for duty. Any questions?"

"Can I ask what you have in mind with our unit?" I ask. "In due time," is all he says as he stands. "Get well, Michelson", and he walks away.

For the next few days, I lay in bed contemplating what we can do to find the Institute and what we will do once we do find them. I look over to see Captain Cade. He tells me that before he can clear me for duty I need to start walking again. He helps me stand up and reminds me not to put too much pressure on it at first. I struggle for a bit but I keep walking until my limp is manageable. I spend my time walking to get familiar with the Prydwen. One of my favorite places to go is the forecastle of the ship. The height is terrifying, but the view is worth it, especially at night.

In the morning, I walk out to the forecastle again and stand at the edge, holding on to the handrails and I hear footsteps behind me. I turn around and see Danse, who has returned from checking on the police station.

"So how is everything at the station?" I ask, hoping for any interesting piece of news outside of the ship. "Good. It is now a fortified Brotherhood outpost. I went there under orders to place the station in Senior Scribe Haylen's care."

"Senior Scribe, huh? Does that mean Haylen isn't in our unit anymore?" I ask. Danse responds, "She will receive orders from Proctor Quinlan for a period of time. But when the time comes, she will rejoin our unit. Rhys will stay with her and ensure the station remains safely in Brotherhood hands. So that leaves us and we are to report to Elder Maxson for our new orders." "Alright then." I say and Danse starts to walk towards the door. "Hey Danse?" "Yes?" he asks and turns around.

I walk up to him and hug him. "I just wanted to thank you. Without you and without the Brotherhood, I'd probably be dead by now." Danse stays quiet and I let go. He's blushing and looks like he's not sure what to say. After standing there in front of me for a while, he just nods.

In that moment, something overwhelms me and I put all thought aside. I lean in and kiss him. Then I wrap my arms around him and he holds me back. Then I snap out of it and realize I probably just crossed a line. I let go and back off for a second.

"S-Sorry. I…" I'm not sure what to even say. Danse has a surprised look on his face and he is blushing a very bright shade of red. "We should go," I say and walk towards the door. Danse is still standing there by the time I reach the door. I turn around and ask him, "You coming?" He turns around and starts walking towards the door.

We meet Maxson on the flight deck. "You seem to have made a quick recovery. Captain Cade has informed me you are cleared for duty. Are you two ready for your next assignment?" "Yes, sir," Danse and I say in unison.

"I'm sure you are aware that our arrival to the Commonwealth was not coincidental. We are here because of the unique energy readings found by Senior Scribe Haylen at Cambridge Police Station. The readings indicated a level of technology that only the Institute could achieve. The moment this information came to light, our mission became clear. The Institute and everyone responsible for the creation of the synths must be eliminated, at all costs. To accomplish this goal, we need to locate the Institute's headquarters. I've had our scribes meticulously searching the Commonwealth but they've come up empty-handed. I need you to be the Brotherhood's eyes and ears in the Commonwealth. If you discover any information about the Institute and its whereabouts, you are to inform me immediately. Understood?"

"Yes, Elder." I say. "Ad Victoriam," he says as he places his hand horizontally across his chest, "and good luck. Dismissed."


	10. Chapter 9: Free Your Mind

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 **Dakota Michelson:**

 **A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction**

Chapter 9: Free Your Mind

In the morning, Danse and I head out. I decide that it would be a good idea to check in with Piper at Diamond City. She seems to know more about the Institute than anyone else in the Commonwealth. Well, at least out of everyone I know in the Commonwealth. I walk into Publick Occurrences and see Piper talking to someone. Danse quickly puts his arm in front of me to stop me and pulls out his rifle. It only takes me one second to realize the person she is talking to is a synth.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Piper yells. "Put the gun down! Nick's not going to hurt anyone!" I'm confused, "What are you talking about, Piper? He's a synth." Piper walks towards us. "Look, kid. I didn't tell you everything about synths. Why don't you both put the guns down and we'll talk about this."

I look over at Danse and we both hesitantly lower our guns. "Nick's an abandoned prototype. He's escaped the Institute. He's on our side." "I'm not buying it," Danse says.

I know Danse is trained to be this way, but I'm still new to all of this and have an open mind. "How can we be sure?" I ask. Piper gives me the stink eye. "Well, I'm not dead yet. And I've known Nick for years. He's saved several of Diamond City's citizens."

"Okay, Piper. I trust you." I say. Danse gives me a stern look of disapproval. "Well, now that that's settled, what can I help you with today?" Piper asks. I relax my posture and tell her, "I'm looking for more information on the Institute. Specifically, how to find the Institute."

"Hoo boy," she says. "I've been investigating these creeps for over a year now." Nick walks forward, smoking a cigarette. He says, "No one knows where the Institute actually is. Or how to get in." I'm skeptical about what Nick is saying. "You mean, you don't know where they are either?" He shakes his head. "No. Security protocols wiped those memories out."

"Ugh. There's gotta be someone that knows where they are." I say. Danse looks over at me and says, "While we were on the Prydwen, Rhys and some knights searched for clues at Fort Hagen. We didn't find anything regarding their location." "W-Wait. What happened at Fort Hagen?" Piper asks. "A squad of Institute synths were using it as a base," Danse says. "There was someone that was leading them. To what, I'm not sure."

"Right. The man with the scar across his eye." I say. Nick looks surprised. "Wait. It couldn't be. Could it be Kellogg?" Danse says, "The terminal belonged to a man named Kellogg. It's probably safe to assume it's the same person." "Well, he must have known how to get in the Institute, right?" Piper says excitedly.

"Well, there's one small problem, Piper," I say. "Kellogg's dead. Brains blown out." Nick looks over at Piper. "Huh. Gets his brains blown out. You know, we may not need him alive at all." We all look at him, confused. Piper says, "You're talking crazy here Nick. Got a fault in the ole' subroutines?"

"Look," he says, "there's a place in Goodneighbor called the Memory Den. Relive the past moments in your mind as clear as the day they happened. If anyone could get a dead brain to sing, it'll be Doctor Amari, the mind behind the memories. But we're going to need a piece of Kellogg's brain. Enough gray matter to bring to Amari and find out if this is going to work."

"Ew gross." I say. It just slipped out. Danse looks over, "Well, Rhys did find something. This was attached to Kellogg's brain." He holds up a clear bag that contains some metallic thing with a decent chunk of brain." "Ew, Danse. You just carry that thing with you?" He chuckles. "It seemed appropriate to bring it since we are investigating the Institute."

Nick, who doesn't seem fazed by this at all, says, "Cybernetics, huh? We may have just won the lottery. If you're ready, we can head out to Amari today. Just need to make a stop by my office first." Eager, I say, "Sure. The sooner, the better."

Danse, Nick, and I head out to his office. While Nick gathers his belongings, Danse and I wait outside. "Really, Dakota? What are you thinking?" Danse says angrily. "What am I supposed to do?" I say, defensively. "Cause a riot in Diamond City? Lose our only lead on finding out where the Institute is? Think about it Danse." Danse is about to respond as Nick opens the door. "You two ready?" Nick says. I nod at Nick and look over at Danse. He doesn't say anything, but stands back up from leaning against the wall and we all start the trip to Goodneighbor.

As we venture deeper into the city, we find several Super Mutant settlements. We are able to take out the ones with only a few of the beasts, but we avoid the larger settlements, as we would be extremely outnumbered.

As we walk into Goodneighbor, I begin to feel very uneasy. Everyone is staring at us and this place has all the makings of danger.

We walk into the Memory Den to meet a woman in a lounge chair. "Well well," she says as she smiles at Nick. "Amari's downstairs." Danse and I continue to follow Nick's lead as we head into the basement.

"Doctor Amari?" Nick says. Amari turns around. "Mr. Valentine. It's been quite a while since you've been in these parts." "Yes, well, we need a deep dig, Amari. It's not gonna be easy. The perp, Kellogg, is already cold on the floor."

"Are you mad!?" Her eyes widen. "Putting aside the fact that you're asking me to defile a corpse, you do realize that the memory simulators require intact, living brains to function?" "Well, technically the corpse was defiled already," I blurt out.

"This dead brain had inside knowledge of the Institute," Nick says to Amari. "The biggest scientific secret of the Commonwealth. You need this as much as we do."

She sighs. "Fine. I'll take a look, but no guarantees." Danse hands over the clear bag. "What's this?" Amari shouts out. "This isn't a brain. Wait… That's the hippocampus! And this thing attached to it. A neural interface? From what I've seen, all Institute technology has a similar architecture."

She continues, "Mr. Valentine is an older generation synth. But, Institute technology being what it is… The brain implant could fit him. But that's an incredible risk to take. We're talking about wiring something to his brain." Nick says, "Don't worry about me, Amari. I'm well past the warranty date, anyway." Surprised, I look over at Nick and ask, "Are you sure about this?" "No idea," he says, "but the information on this brain is worth the risk."

Amari tries to attach the implant to Nick. "I need you to keep talking to me, Mr. Valentine," she says. "Any slight change in your cognitive functions could be dire." "There's a lot of flashes. Static. I can't make any sense of it, doc," he responds. Amari looks over at me. "It seems the mnemonic impressions are encoded. The Institute has one last failsafe. There's a lock on the memories in the implant."

"Is there a way to unlock it?" I ask. "Let me think," she says. "The encryption is too strong for a single mind. But what if we used two? We load both you and Mr. Valentine into the memory loungers and run your cognitive functions in parallel. He'll act as a host while your consciousness drives through whatever memories we can find." I take a deep breath. "Alright then. Let's… get started," I say.

"Dakota?" Danse says. I look over at him. "Good luck, soldier." I give him an uneasy smile. I'm no good at lying and I can't hide the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing or if I'm okay with it. But there's no other choice. This is the only way to find out about the Institute.

I sit in the lounger and within a few short seconds, it feels like I am losing consciousness. Like sleeping…

…

…

…

…

…

I open my eyes and I'm sitting on a bed. A woman is next to me. "Can you hear me?" Amari's voice echoes through my "dream". "Ah, good. The simulation appears to be working, although the memories are quite fragmentary. I'll try to find the intact memories that hopefully gives us a clue to the Institute's location." After a short while, everything comes to me. The woman is my mother. Or wait, no. It's Kellogg's mother. "Remember, you are experiencing these memories as Kellogg. This may prove disorienting at first," Amari says.

The radio is playing and mom… I mean Kellogg's mother says, "Listen to me, Connie. You take this." She hands me a gun. "You're old enough. You're the man of the family now. It's your job to protect us."

"This doesn't seem to be what we're looking for…" Amari's voice echoes. All of a sudden, several images and scattered thoughts zoom by. I recognize bits and pieces of it, but the rest just flash by. "Wait!" I say. The memories stop zooming by and I'm standing in front of a woman. I'm surrounded by several synths. "So, you're with the Institute." I… Kellogg says. "What do you want?"

The Institute agent says, "It's come to my attention that you've been disruptive of our operations lately. This must stop." I say, "I do what people pay me to do. If that's a problem for you, I can see only one way out." She says, "I don't think you fully understand the situation you're in." "I think I do." "Very well. B7-48, initiate," she commands. I grab the synth and from behind and use it like a shield. I fire at one of the synths across the room. It falls to the ground. Same with the next one. Then I kick the synth I was using to the ground and shoot it in the head.

"Impressive. We may have something to talk about after all," the woman says.

"We're getting closer. I've found another memory for you to try out." Amari says.

I'm in a vault. THE vault. I walk in and there are two scientists with me. "Vault computers are still working. That's good," one of the scientists say. "Checking through the logs. Hopefully it's all…" Impatiently, I say, "Just… find it." He responds, "Pod C6. Down the hall near the end." I walk up to the pod. The other scientist points at it and says, "This is the one. Here." I command, "Open it." The door opens and I recognize it as the missing woman with the baby. She is shivering and coughing. "Is it over? Are we okay?" "Almost." I say. "Everything's going to be fine." The scientist tries grabbing the baby. "Come here. It's okay." The woman refuses to let go though. "I've got him," she yells. I point my gun at her. "Let the boy go. I'm only gonna tell you once." She continues to struggle. "I'm not giving you Shaun!" I fire, and it's done. "Goddammit!" I yell. "Get the kid out of here and let's go." I look into another pod. "At least we still have the backup…"

Amari zooms to the next memory. "O…kay… Let's try this one."

I'm sitting in a chair. The boy, Shaun. I remember thinking, "Wasn't my idea to settle down with the kid in the middle of Diamond City. I thought it was a terrible idea, actually. But it was one of the old man's pet projects, so here we are. The first kid synth. We're like a happy little family."

The front door opens. A courser. "Kellogg," he says. "So what's the big crisis this time?" I ask. "New orders for you. One of our scientists has gone rogue. Name's Doctor Brian Virgil. We know he's hiding somewhere in the Glowing Sea. Here's his file." I look over the file. Virgil was the head of Bioscience. "Wow, some heads are gonna to roll for this. Capture and return? Or just elimination?" "Elimination," the courser says. "He was working on a highly classified program."

"Damn… So I guess you're taking the kid back with you." The synth responds, "Affirmative. Your only mission is to locate and eliminate Virgil." The kid says, "You're taking me home to my father?" "Yes. Stand next to me and hold still." The two walk over to the middle of the room. "X6-88, ready to relay with Shaun." Just like that, two blinding flashes, like lightning bolts, and they're gone.


	11. Chapter 10: Frisson

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 **Dakota Michelson:**

 **A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction**

Chapter 10: Frisson

After our discovery that the Institute's only entrance was teleportation, we decided that our only hope was to find Virgil in the Glowing Sea. Nick went out back to Diamond City, but Doctor Amari let us stay at the Memory Den for the night.

In the morning, Danse wakes me up. I'm still very tired. Yesterday's experience was very draining and I can't seem to shake this headache off. I yawn and ask, "Time to go?" He nods as he puts together his belongings. We walk outside and I realize it's still very dark. It must be early morning. "How long were we asleep?" I ask. "Only a few hours," he says. I ask him, "Is everything alright?" This all seems very unusual. "Yes," he says. "I want to get stop somewhere before we head back to the Prydwen is all."

We continue walking north and it starts snowing. We haven't talked much since we left Goodneighbor, so to break the ice, I start talking about our next move. "So what exactly is in the Glowing Sea?" Danse looks over at me and back to the ground. "It's heavily radiated. Several creatures live and thrive there. Deathclaws, radscorpions, stingwings. To make it worse, there are frequent and deadly radstorms." As he tells me this, I know my newfound fear of the Glowing Sea was well justified. I try to convince myself that I can get can through this, because I have to go there one way or another, but I'm failing miserably, so I just decide not to think about it.

Danse and I approach what looks like an abandoned bunker. "What's here?" I ask him. He looks over at me and I see he has a small smile on his face, but he doesn't say anything. His smile eases me. Until now I was assuming the worst, but maybe he just wants to show me something. Danse turns on the terminal and all of a sudden the light on the elevator next to it flickers on.

The elevator moves slowly down underground and when it opens it's very quiet and it seems like no one has been in here for a while. Dust is thick in the air. Danse walks out of the elevator into the light-filled room. Several of the walls are broken. Dirt and debris are in piles at a few edges of the room. We walk through a cave that has been dug out and into another room. I see a barrel with charred wood, a mattress on the floor, and a trunk.

"So... what is this place?" I ask. Danse moves towards the barrel and says, "it's an old bunker that Haylen and I discovered on one of our excursions. No one else knows it's here, but… I wanted you to know."

I nod and look around the place. I really do wonder about the structural integrity of this place given its current condition. But I suppose it's safe enough. Danse lights a fire in the barrel and pulls the mattress next to it. I move towards the barrel to get warm. The room is frigid so the fire is very comforting. As I move towards it, Danse scoots over on the mattress, as if to make room for me to sit next to him, so I do. Danse opens a nearby trunk and pulls out two beer bottles. I chuckle because I haven't seen him drink before. I've never been a fan of beer, but I will definitely not turn it down after all that has happened. The beer is nice and cold thanks to the temperature of the room.

Danse opens his beer and takes a sip. He looks over at me and says, "I… feel like I owe you an apology. Not putting that synth down actually turned out to be the right choice." I look over at him and say, "I'm sorry I went against your authority. I know it's what is expected of me as being part of the Brotherhood. I… prefer to keep an open mind, and that led me to lower my gun and hear Nick out."

Danse says, "Well, I was wrong. I shouldn't have looked at it so black-and-white. Without him, we would have hit a dead end."

I look down at the ground, trying to hide a smile that was creeping onto my face. I'd never expect Danse to admit to something like this. I take a sip of my beer and move closer to the campfire.

"You know, when I was an Initiate, my sponsor was Paladin Krieg," Danse says. "Toughest squad leader I ever served with. He was a model soldier, embodying the values every trainee was striving to achieve. Fiercely loyal, secure in his beliefs and brave to a fault. From the moment I was assigned to his squad I was singled out. It felt like he was pushing me harder than the rest of the team. He never did explain why he treated me the way he did. It's taken me a long time to realize it, but the reason Krieg was so tough on me is the same reason I'm so tough on you. It's because I believe in you and I don't want to see any of your potential go to waste."

I feel myself blushing. "I… don't know what to say." He says, "You don't need to say anything." He takes another drink. "I trust you'll keep this in confidence. Some of that information was of a person nature, and well, I'd like to keep it that way."

"Of course." I say. It's quiet and there's a slight tension in the air. I feel myself yearning to be closer to him. I decide to lean closer to him. To my surprise, he puts his shoulder around me and holds me close to him. A big smile appears on my face which I cannot hide. My heart is pounding in my chest.

We sit like this for what seems like a long time and I wonder what is going on in his head. Danse speaks, which frightened me since it was so quiet. "This… isn't professional. We should stop this," he says as he backs off of me.

I look down to the ground in disappointment. I don't want this to stop. I've never felt this feeling before with anyone. I want to be with Danse. That's the only thing I really know in this new life with absolute certainty.

I finish the rest of my beer and he does the same. There's an awkward silence in the room now. My eyelids feel heavier and heavier by the second so I decide it's time to go back to sleep. I lay down on my side and fall asleep almost immediately.

I wake up in a startle. The only light in the room is from the fire in the barrel. Danse must have turned the lights out. I think to myself that I am glad Danse took me here. Despite the debris and the cold weather which makes this room into an ice box, I feel safe here. I feel at peace here. I can't remember the last time I truly felt this relaxed.

Danse, who's lying behind me on the mattress, takes a deep breath and rolls over. His arm wraps around me so he holds me close to him again. I'm not sure if he did this unknowingly in his sleep or if he is awake. I wait for a bit and then decide to roll over so I can see him. His hand is now against my lower back.

And he's staring right into my eyes.

Blood starts rushing to my cheeks. I'm not sure what is going through his head at all anymore. It seemed like he and I felt the same way about each other at first, and then he pulled back. He moves his hand up to caress my face and I can't help but smile. He moves closer to me and our bodies are touching now. He puts his hand on my back to push me even closer and then he kisses me. It's a very gentle, but passionate kiss. It's so intense and I'm not sure what to think anymore. All I can think about is how much I want this. How much I want him. I wrap my arms around him and we kiss faster and even more intensely. He gets on top of me and I'm surrounded by him and the mattress and we both lose ourselves.


	12. Chapter 11: The Glowing Sea

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 **Dakota Michelson:**

 **A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction**

Chapter 11: The Glowing Sea

I wake up and I'm shivering. But still, it feels like the first time I've had a good night's sleep since I escaped Vault 111. I open my eyes and see Danse still sleeping. His arm is still wrapped around me. His body is so warm. "How can he not be cold?" I think to myself. I take advantage of his warmth and move even closer to him. I wrap my arm around him and he wakes up.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to wake you," I said. He looks at me and just smiles. He leans in, kisses me, and then stands up. I turn over and sit up so I can start dressing myself. Danse walks over to the trunk and pulls out some Sugar Bombs. "It's not much, but it's something to hold us over until we get to the Prydwen," he says. " _This_ will hold us over?" I say to him with a smile. "Unless you'd prefer Mac  & Cheese for breakfast," he offers.

I shake my head. "I'm teasing. This is fine," I say. "You know, it's kind of gross when you think about what they put into these foods that makes them still good to eat two hundred years later." Danse chuckles, but doesn't say anything. "You alright?" I ask. "Yes," he says. "It's just… we need to keep what we have a secret. There are severe consequences if this gets out." I stand up and walk over to him. "No one will know," I say. I give him a peck and then hug him. We embrace each other for a while and when he lets go, I know it's time to move out. Danse gets dressed and steps back into his power armor.

We leave the bunker and I see that the sun is out and the snow has stopped. "So what's the plan once we get to the Prydwen?" I ask. "We will report our findings to Elder Maxson and request a vertibird to take us to the Glowing Sea." I nod at him. "Alright. No time to waste then."

We move southeast towards the Prydwen and as we get over a hill, I see the Prydwen. The sunrise behind it is beautiful and I feel a brief sense of serenity until I remember all of the dangers we will face once we get to our destination.

We get to the bridge and start walking through the abandoned streets nearby the airport. I can't help but think how great of a place this could be once it was cleaned up. It has several intact buildings and is in close proximity to the Brotherhood. Maybe after our mission with the Institute is done, we can help the Commonwealth start rebuilding, if Maxson doesn't have other plans already.

We walk through the entrance to the airport. Danse says, "It's good to be back." He has such a cute smile. I quickly turn away and remember I can't look at him that way right now. Proctor Ingram spots us and walks over. "Welcome back, you two. How did the hunt go?" she asks. Danse speaks, "We still don't know the whereabouts of the Institute, but we have a lead. Unfortunately, it's in the Glowing Sea."

Her eyes widen. "The Glowing Sea, huh? Well, luckily for you, I have a few power armor mods I've been fixing up. A few of them will help with radiation resistance. They're up with Proctor Teagan… Good luck." Danse says, "Thank you, Proctor," and we both head up to the vertibird to take us up to the Prydwen.

Once inside, we approach Elder Maxson on the command deck. "Elder Maxson," Danse says. Maxson turns around and Danse gives him the full report. "It sounds to me that we are going to need to give you a suit of power armor then," Maxson says to me. "The Glowing Sea is too dangerous to have you walking around unprotected. I'll have Proctor Ingram get one ready for you. In the meantime, I suggest you stock up on supplies. Ad victoriam."

We go up to the Mess Officer for some food. "Some REAL food," I think to myself. We sit at the bar and chat with him for a bit until Proctor Ingram approaches us and tells us my power armor is ready. I walk over to my new armor and I can't help that I have a stupidly large smile on my face. A sense of relief comes to me now that I'll have a power armor to take with me to the Glowing Sea. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Ingram says. "Try it out." I walk up to it, but I have no clue how to get in. I turn over to Danse and Ingram. She laughs and walks over. "The fusion core is already in there. All you need to do is turn the valve to the left and it will open." I follow her instruction and surely enough, it opens. I step in and put my armors and legs in and then power armor closes down behind me.

"Whoa," I say. Danse and Ingram laugh. I move around in it. It feels weird, but I think I can get used to this.

Danse and I stock up on food, supplies, and ammo. Then we head back to the flight deck, where a vertibird awaits us. We get in and take off immediately.

I've found that I enjoy flying in the vertibirds. It's peaceful and looking over the Commonwealth from this height is very interesting. I see some fields and lots of old buildings. Then we fly over an excavation site. I think I see people there too. Then the sound of a bullet rings on the side of the vertibird. "Raiders," Danse says. He walks up to the minigun and starts firing. They all start running to find shelter. I'm peeking out from behind Danse, but I can't see them anymore. I walk to the other side of the vertibird and start noticing something different about the trees. The trees in the Commonwealth look very much dead, but these look worse somehow. We pass over a group of houses where a small lake has flooded the area.

We fly up to the top of a nearby hill and the vertibird stops, but doesn't land. "Alright Michelson," Danse says. "Jump out." I look over to him with a look that says "Are you crazy!?" even though I'm wearing my helmet and he can't see my face anyway. "You'll be alright. The suit will protect you," he assures me.

I look down and my heart sinks again. I trust him though, so I just close my eyes and fall. The ground moves rapidly towards me and I land. For a moment, I feel like I may have started an earthquake with how loud and heavy that fall was. But I look around and everything is still. Danse lands next to me and I almost fall over. "Goddamn! Maybe a little warning before you land right next to me!?" I say to him. "Let's move out," is all he says.

We walk down the hill and everything is quiet. But it's not like the quiet from outside the bunker. This is tragic. My jaw drops as I look around. I see parts of a few buildings that are still standing, but it's mostly just dirt and debris. The sky is blue, but it has a strange green tint over it. Like a cloud on the ground. We walk down another hill and I see a lake. It has a glow over it. It reminds me of the Aurora Borealis that I've seen pictures of, but dirty. The more we walk into the yellow-green cloud, the more the blue sky disappears. It feels like we've just stepped onto another planet. It's all like nothing I've ever seen.

We keep walking and in the distance I see a giant scorpion. "Danse?" I say. He walks up to me. "What the hell is that?" I ask. "A radscorpion," he says. "Be careful of those. They like to burrow in the grounds and ambush you." I turn my head towards him in shock and then look back. The radscorpion is out of sight now. Thanks to that advice, I feel more paranoid than ever.

We continue walking, avoiding the area where the radscorpion was seen. The Geiger-Counter in the armor starts making noise. It's a very low amount of radiation though, thanks to Ingram's mod. Danse packed some RadAway in case we start feeling sick.

As we keep walking the hills are getting taller and taller. When we get to the top, I realize why. It's the crater. We are looking over the very spot that gave this region its name. The glow I saw from that lake before has nothing on this one. The Geiger-Counter is going crazy now.

We start walking down the hill and I think that my eyes are playing tricks on me. It looks like there are shacks and lights in the crater. I walk towards it and they are still there. It's not a mirage…

We walk into one of the shacks and I see some food and supplies, which seem to be pretty recent. I look over at Danse in confusion and then hear a voice.

"Stop right there, stranger."


	13. Chapter 12: Atom

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 **Dakota Michelson**

 **A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction**

Chapter 12: Atom

"You approach Atom's holy ground. Why? State your purpose, or be divided in his sight."

I turn around to see who is speaking. A woman with dark brown and green tinted skin stands still at the opposite entrance of the shack. Her face is covered is grime, the whites of her eyes are bloodshot, and her unkempt hair is wavering in the wind.

"What?" is all that escapes my mouth. "Atom reached out and touched this world, bringing his Glow to us," she says. "It remains to this day, a reminder of his promise. Infinite worlds through division." "O..Okay then." I stutter. "We mean you no harm. We are looking for someone. Doctor Virgil?"

"Few make the effort to travel so far," the woman says. "What is it that you want from him?" "It doesn't concern you," Danse interjects. I look at Danse and look back at the woman. "He isn't one of your people, as far as I know," I say. "True, he is not a Child of Atom," she says. "But he has sought refuge in Atom's Glow, and Atom granted it. I would not question the will of Atom. So again, what do you want with him?"

"I just need some information from him," I say, hoping that she doesn't continue to pry. "I see…" she says. "In truth, this Virgil has caused some concern. Some believe his presences is an affront to Atom. Though he came to trade with us on a few occasions, we have had little other contact with him. It was quite clear he wanted to be left alone. You can find him southwest of the crater, living in a cave. I would approach cautiously, were I you."

"Thank you." I say to her and we leave. As we walk back in the direction we came in from, we look around the crater and see no easier way but to go around it. The ring is too high and too steep to climb. Danse says to me, "It's places like this that make me wonder about the future of humanity."

"You're telling me," I say. "They are really worshipping the radiation? How can they possibly survive living in there? The rads are ridiculous!" Danse says, "After living in radiation for over two centuries, their DNA has been mutated in such a way that it is resistant to radiation." I look over at Danse, surprised. "The question has been asked before," he clarifies.

As we walk around the ring, we can see a radstorm approaching in the distance. It looks much worse than the one we were in near Diamond City. "We need to hurry and find this cave," I tell Danse as I point out to the distance.

Within minutes, the storm hits, my Geiger-counter goes crazy and my vision is even more obscured than it was before. We keep walking downhill, but we don't see any cave. All of a sudden, a large bug flies around me. It's fast and from the small glimpse I saw, it's almost my size. It has a huge stinger too!

I grab my laser rifle and look around. I hear it on my right and look over. It's charging right at me and it tries to sting me. The power armor is too strong for the stinger though and it flies off. I look around for the bug and for Danse, but I don't see either. "Danse!?" I yell out. "Danse, where are you!?"

I walk around to try to find him, but I don't see him anywhere. The lightning gets louder and more frequent. "Danse!?" I yell again, but I hear nothing in return. I turn around and another flash of lightning hits. "Huh?" I say. I think I see something. I try to focus in on the spot, but it's too dark. Lightning strikes again and it lights up my view. "The cave! Danse, I found the cave!" I still don't hear anything and I am getting extremely worried. My gut is telling me something is very wrong. "Danse!?" I try once more. Through the rain and thunder, I think I can hear loud footsteps. It could be my ears playing tricks on me though, making me hear what I want to hear. I look all around me, hoping that the noise is real. I look over the hill behind me and I see him running towards me. "Danse!" I yell. Then I see why he is running.

A swarm of those bugs. They are all around him. "Run, Dakota! Run!" he yells. And I listen. "The cave is this way!" I yell back. With any luck, they won't follow us in there.

We make it in the cave, but they are still coming. We run in and I see a white light at the end of the rocky hallway. I turn the corner and see two turrets. Danse is right behind me and the turrets beep. I dive forward on the ground. The turrets shoot at the bugs, but I can still hear the buzzing. I turn over so I can see behind me. Danse and I fire at the bugs as well and thanks to the turrets, we make quick work of them. Then everything is quiet.

"What the hell is going on?" a deep voice shouts. We both turn around and stand up. It's a super mutant. But he looks different than the other Super Mutants I've seen. He has strange clothes and glasses on. Danse walks forward and asks, "Are you Doctor Virgil?"

"You know damn well I am. I know you're from the Institute. So where's Kellogg? Huh? Trying to sneak up on me while you distract me?" "Take it easy," I say. "We aren't with the Institute and we aren't here to hurt you."

"Yeah. Right. Like I'm supposed to believe that," he says. "You're working with Kellogg!" he yells. I say, "Of course not. Kellogg is dead." Virgil's eyes widen. "Dead? He's… dead?" I nod. "I know it's probably difficult to believe, given all of the horrible things he's done."

"There's no question it's difficult to believe," Virgil says. "Kellogg was ruthless. There's a reason the Institute used him to do their dirty work for so many years. I knew they'd send him after me; tried to prepare for it. But I still wasn't sure I'd make it. What do you want with me then?"

Danse says, "I am Paladin Danse of the Brotherhood of Steel. This is Scribe Michelson." Virgil looks at us carefully. "That explains the power armor," he says. Danse continues, "We know you were part of the Institute, and you escaped. We need to get in." Virgil looks at Danse and says, "You really aren't from the Institute, are you? That is absurd. Never mind how nearly impossible that is, even if you were to succeed, it'd almost certainly end in your immediate death."

"You don't need to worry about that. We can take care of ourselves," Danse says. Virgil sighs. "I can help, but… I'm going to need something in return. Before I had to escape, I was working on a serum that would serve as a cure for my… condition. I wasn't able to bring it with me. It's still in my lab, and… Well, look at me. I need it! I need you to find it for me, if you manage to get inside the Institute."

"Deal," I quickly say. Danse look over at me, then back at Virgil. "All right. Let's talk details," Virgil says.

He explains about the Molecular Relay, how it de-materializes you in one place, re-materializes you in another and that the Relay is the only way in and out of the Institute. He hands me a chip.

"This is a Courser chip. I forgot I had it on me when I escaped, until I got here. If you see Doctor Li, you can thank her for giving it to me. If you can wait here, I will draw up some schematics you will need to build your own Relay. You're going to need some advanced equipment and supplies. Do you think you can do that?"

I look over at Danse for an answer. He says, "if it's the only way in, we will do whatever it takes to build the Relay." Virgil chuckles and walks towards a table and starts writing. "Damn hands. These things are massive."


	14. Chapter 13: Decrypt

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 **Dakota Michelson**

 **A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction**

Chapter 13: Decrypt

Danse and I meet will Elder Maxson on the Prydwen to report our latest discovery. "This is excellent work, you two," he says. "Proctor Ingram, do you think you are able to decrypt this chip?" Ingram looks over the chip and responds, "Not sure. But I sure as hell can try. These schematics you gave me look like they were written by a child." I explain that Virgil turned himself into a Super Mutant so he could survive in the Glowing Sea. Maxson nods. "All right then. Until then, you two are to remain on the Prydwen and await further orders. Dismissed."

Danse and I wait in his quarters. I've never been in here before. I think to myself how nice it would be to have privacy again. The common area is pretty crowded. "I hope Proctor Ingram is able to get what we need off that chip," I say to Danse. "I'd like to think that she will be triumphant, but she hasn't had much experience with Institute technology. It's new territory for the Brotherhood. Maybe with Quinlan's help, she will be able to crack it." I nod and then we sit quietly for a while. It's peaceful to have a moment to just sit and relax for a bit. I yawn and realize it's been quite a while since I've had any sleep. Danse puts his arm around me and I lean in towards him.

I'm blushing, like I always do when he is this close to me. I look up at him and his dark eyes are looking right into mine. He caresses my face with his hand to kisses me. My heart starts to pound again and I lean in closer to him, nearly pushing him down on the bed, but he stops me. "Sorry," he says. "We really shouldn't be doing this on the Prydwen. It's too risky." I smile and nod. I give him one last short kiss and he smiles back at me.

Suddenly, the intercom blares, "Paladin Danse and Scribe Michelson, report to the command deck immediately." Danse stands up and says, "Let's see what news Ingram has for us."

We head down to the Command deck and see Maxson, Ingram, and Quinlan waiting for us.

Proctor Ingram is holding the chip in her hands and has a look of disappointment. "I wish I could tell you some good news," she begins, "but it seems we don't have the capabilities to break the security on this chip." Quinlan chimes in, "The security on this chip is far more advanced than anything we have encountered before." Maxson looks at us and says, "It seems that we must count on you to discover a way to unlock the chip. Can you think of anyone in the Commonwealth who may possess such capabilities?"

Immediately I think of Dr. Amari at The Memory Den. "We could try Dr. Amari in Goodneighbor." Maxson looks at me and says, "Doesn't she specialize in memories? What makes you think she can help us in this situation?" I say, "If she isn't able to help us, she may know someone who can. I think it's a good place to start." He nods. "Very well then. I'll leave both of you to it. Dismissed."

Danse and I take a vertibird to the outskirts of Goodneighbor, close enough to walk to but far enough to avoid creating a scene and causing the locals to fire at the vertibird. Once inside the Memory Den, I see Dr. Amari at the terminal in the back of the main room.

"It's you!" she says, her eyes widened. "The Glowing Sea. What happened?"

I say, "We found Virgil and he was able to help us. He gave us this Courser chip. I'm hoping you can help us decrypt it." "A Courser chip?" she asks in disbelief. "I'm afraid I won't be able to help you. I've never seen a Courser chip, let alone know what it does." Danse speaks up, "Do you know of anyone that may be able to assist?"

"Well…" she says. "There is someone. A group that calls themselves 'The Railroad.' I don't know where they are, only a code. 'Follow The Freedom Trail.' I'm sorry for being so cryptic, but that is all I have. I hope you find them and get what you are looking for."

Danse and I leave Goodneighbor. I'm disappointed that I was wrong about Amari being able to help us. I step on something metal and look down. It's a circle that says 'Boston • The Freedom Trail.' "Danse? Look at this." He walks over and says, "There's a 6 and an arrow point at the letter O." I say, "This is too big of a coincidence. I wonder if these red bricks will lead us to them." He says, "There's only one way to find out."

We follow the bricks as best as we can. It's a bit difficult with all of the debris, but we've been able to find where the trail picks up. We get to another code. 4L. We keep walking and the trail stops. This one has 7A. But there's a sign on a wood plank that reads 'At Journey's End Follow Freedom's Lantern.' Danse says, "Perhaps this is actually the beginning of the trail. The trail went in the opposite direction back at Goodneighbor." I nod and say, "Good thinking," and we head back the way we came.

We make it back to Goodneighbor and surely enough, the trail continues past an old bookstore. We walk up some stairs and see a Super Mutant campground. We crouch down and walk closer. One of the Super Mutants is walking around and holding a flashing bomb. "I'll get this one, Dakota," says Danse. He's already looking down his rifle. "Just a little closer," he says and I realize he is going to shoot the bomb. The Super Mutant gets closer to the rest of them and Danse fires. His laser precisely hits the bomb and it explodes. I duck and cover my ears. The ground trembles, but then I uncover my ears and hear nothing but the fire crackling in the campground. I get up and look around to see that all of the Super Mutants are destroyed. "Nice shot!" I say.

The middle of the campground has another clue for us. This one is 5R. I'm trying to memorize these, but I'm worried I will forget, so I ask Danse if he is memorizing them also. He says, "6O 4L 7A 5R." I smile at him. "What? I'm not supposed to be impressed or anything, am I?" I say jokingly. He walks towards me with a smile on his face and I can't help but to kiss him again. It's a short kiss, but it feels good because I feel that I can be more casual with him; like I can be myself around him.

We continue walking and this area has even more debris, the worst I've seen in Boston. The next marker says 8D. Right around the corner, the next marker says 1R. But the trail ends at a church. I look back at Danse. "It looks like it ends here." Danse walks up to the door and opens it.

We walk in and there's a horrible smell. The place is completely ruined. "Well if they were here, I doubt they are here now." My voice echoes in the church and suddenly several feral ghouls rise from the debris. Danse and I maintain our positions and fire at the ones running towards us. I've gotten pretty good at killing the ferals. In just moments, they are all dead.

We look around the church for any signs of life. I walk upstairs the left stairs while Danse checks the right. I don't see anything of significance. "You find anything?" I ask. "Negative," Danse says. I look back out to the ground level and see nothing still. Danse continues walking down until an area where the floor has collapsed and I notice a painting of a sign that looks far to crisp to be anything pre-war.

"Hey, Danse! Look at this!" I say, pointing at the sign. "It looks like a lantern. There's a hallway underneath it." Danse and I head back downstairs and into the hallway. There are stairs that go into a basement. There are skeletons everywhere. "These crypts would be an excellent place to seek shelter during a bombardment," Danse says.

We get to the end of the hallway and find another Freedom Trail marker. There's a wire coming from the outside that goes into another brick wall. "Something doesn't feel right here," I say. I walk up to the marker and push it. Only the center part is a button. I wait, anticipating something to happen, but nothing does. Danse and I examine it and realize that the words are on a ring that spins. "That must be it!" I say. "Danse, what was the code again?" He says, "6O 4L 7A 5R 8D 1R". I move the ring so the red arrow at the top of the button is pointing to the letter R and I push the button. I near a noise behind the marker and I look at Danse in surprise. "So… I guess we are missing some of the code? We don't have a 2 or 3." Danse says, "If we put what we have in order, it spells R, blank, blank, L, R, O, A, D." Both of our eyes light up and in unison, we say "RAILROAD!"

I turn the ring to A and push the button. There's another noise. We keep going until we finish the word. The noise happens again and keeps happening, like some sort of gear. Suddenly the wall that had the wire going into it moves back and to the side. Behind that wall, there's a hallway, but inside of it is pitch black, except for the dim light emanating from a small candle. "I have a bad feeling about this," I say to Danse. He puts his rifle up and walks cautiously into the hall. I do the same.

We keep walking and suddenly a blindingly bright light shines in our faces. A voice echoes through the hall, "Stop right there."


	15. Chapter 14: Followed The Freedom Trail

**WARNING: I posted Chapter 14 and 13 at the same time. If you have not read Chapter 13, please read that chapter first!**

* * *

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 **Dakota Michelson**

 **A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction**

Chapter 14: Followed The Freedom Trail

The woman says, "You went through a lot of effort to arrange this meeting. But before we go any further, answer my questions. Who the hell are you?" There are two people at her side, one of them is aiming a detached vertibird gun at us.

Danse says, "We followed the Freedom Trail looking for The Railroad. We're not your enemy." The woman responds, "If that's true, you have nothing to fear. However, judging by your Power Armor, I'd wager that you're with the Brotherhood of Steel. Who told you how to contact us?" A man walks in through an opening behind the woman. Either his hair is a wig, or he has a stock of some of the best hair gel ever. I look at Danse, wondering if we should disclose our source.

"I'm afraid that's none of your business," Danse says. The woman says, "We'll find out, one way or another." She has a very smug, confident tone. "Last question. Why are you here?" Danse says, "We are here to find The Railroad to decode a Courser chip." She says, "You have what? This is not a joking matter."

Suddenly the guy that walked in says, "I didn't know we're having a party. What gives with my invitation? Oh, I see you invited the Vault Dweller. Nice." I look at the man, surprised and even slightly angered by the fact he knows that. "Deacon, you're late," the woman says. "Are you saying you know who this intruder is?" He says, "I have enough on them. But we need that Courser chip, boss." She looks back at us and says, "Show it to us." I pull the chip out and show it. "Hmm," she says. "Very well. I'm Desdemona and I'm the leader of the Railroad."

"Who are you people, exactly?" I say. She responds, "In a world full of suspicion, treachery, and hunters, we're the synth's only friend." The man with the immaculate hair says, "Dez, we need to let them in. They have a Courser chip for God's sake." Desdemona looks back at us and squints her eyes. "We're letting you into our headquarters. You're the first outsiders every to be given this privilege. We'll discuss the details about your chip inside."

We follow Desdemona inside and are followed by the three others. "Decoding a Courser chip is delicate work. A million things can go wrong, the least of which is losing the data. Fortunately, we have the right man for the job." We walk up to a man who has some crazy helmet-like thing on. "Hey Dez, you need something?" he says.

She says, "Tom, our visitor here has a Courser chip." "Whoa!" Tom says. "For Real? It's been ages!" Desdemona says, "Right. Some ground rules. Tom can get you the code, but once he's done, we get the Courser chip." I look back at Danse again, unsure if he is okay with that deal. He looks back at me, like it's my decision. I look down and think. All we really need is the data. We don't even have any real way of using the chip anyway.

"Why do you need the chip?" I ask. She says, "I'm not going to get into details. But that chip could help us save lives. Maybe throw a wrench in some of the Institute's operations. So… hand over the chip."

I look back at Danse and he nods. "Okay," I say and hand it over to her. She gives it to Tom and says, "Make it happen." The man says, "All right, little Courser chip. Let's have the circuit analyzer take a crack at you." He sounds crazy. He's likely high on some sort of drug.

He plugs it into a strange looking terminal and starts mumbling something unintelligible. After a while, he yells, "We got it! We got the code! Let me load that onto a holotape for ya!" and he laughs almost maniacally. He hands it to Desdemona and she to us. "We got lucky, Dez," Tom says. "I'm not sure our luck will hold up next time." She nods and says, "Start working on the rest of the chip." She then turns to Danse. "And you. You look familiar. Have we met before?" Danse says, "I don't believe we have." She chuckles and says, "Well, I'd love to work with you more. Let me know if you're interested." I suddenly feel a hint of jealousy and think that she is checking him out or something. She walks us to the door.

Danse and I walk outside and we head more towards the river, where it's not surrounded by the tall buildings and throws a Vertibird Signal Grenade and we wait until it shows up.

"What do you think about them?" I ask. He has a look of disapproval and says, "Anyone who helps synths is an enemy. If they weren't giving us that code, I would have shot them all down."

The Vertibird arrives and we board it. Once at the airport, we hand the code over to Proctor Ingram. She says, "I have put together the schematics and already started to get to work building them. Meet me here at the airport at 0600 hours." I nod.

In the morning, Danse and I meet up with Ingram at the airport. We begin to walk and she says, "Molecular transmission via encrypted RF waves. Even I have to admit, that's genius. This explains why we've been picking up anomalous energy readings all across the Commonwealth. This little beauty allows you to literally hijack a return signal. Instead of grabbing the intended target, it grabs you instead."

We walk around a broken down wall and I see a huge tower looking thing with a platform at the bottom. It's wired to some sort of command center and a satellite dish. Ingram says, "Let's wait for Elder Maxson to get here. I'm sure he'll want to brief you before he sends you in there." My eyes widen. "Me!? You want me to go in there?" "Well, yeah," she says. "Someone's gotta go in there." I want to argue against that, but I know that decision isn't coming from her. Maxson arrives and says "Well, are you ready to go to the Institute, Scribe?" My eyes still wide from shock, I say, "Why me, Elder Maxson? Isn't there someone more suited for this?" He just stares at me for a few seconds. "After much deliberation, I've decided you are the most suited for this mission. The rest of your unit is needed elsewhere."

My heart is pounding. I'm not sure what else to do. I mean, it's not like I can run away or anything. They'd probably shoot me down for treason. "So Michelson. Are you ready to go or not?" Maxson asks.

I guess I'm as ready as I will ever be. "Yes, sir," I say, with a giant lump in my throat.

He says, "Now when we throw that switch, we don't know exactly what's going to happen. God willing, you'll end up inside the Institute and the mission can continue. I want you to listen carefully. Once you've entered the Institute, we expect to lose contact, so it's imperative you remember everything I'm about to tell you. About ten years ago, the Brotherhood began recruiting civilian scientists from the Capital Wasteland to assist with various projects. During this process, we were able to obtain the services of Doctor Madison Li, a noted mind in the field of nuclear engineering. However, she eventually developed differences with the Brotherhood and exiled herself to the Commonwealth. We're fairly certain that her intent was to make contact with the Institute. Your mission is simple. Once inside the Institute, we want you to track down Doctor Li's whereabouts. If you find out that she's still alive, make contact with her and convince her to return to the Brotherhood of Steel. There's a special project we're working on, and it needs her attention. Listen, I'm well aware that you're risking your life going into the Institute blind. Just keep your mind on the mission, and don't let anything they say sway you from your duty."

I nod and say, "Understood, Elder." He salutes me and says "Good luck." I stand on the platform and face Ingram, who's at the control center. Danse is next to her. I look at Danse desperately, wondering if this will be the last time I'll see him again.

Ingram says, "Let's see… Relay's dialed in, beam emitter's warmed up. Everything looks green. Let me start scanning for the signal. Cross your fingers. I'm inputting the code now. It may take a minute or two to lock in. By the way, this little trip you're taking is a heck of an opportunity to find out as much as we can about the Institute and what they're up to. I put a clever little program on this holotape that'll scan their network and download anything it finds. If you place it in any terminal down there, it'll do the rest. Bring it back to me and I'll see if I can make sense of whatever it found."

I stand as still as possible, looking at the electricity bolts which occasionally surround me. I keep thinking one of them will electrocute me. "Well, well…" Ingram says. "Looks like we have a winner. RF wave capture complete. Raming the emitter." My heart feels like it is going to pound right out of my chest. "Sixty percent… Eighty percent… Ok now it's ready. All that's left to do is to throw the transmitter switch. Transmitting in three… two… one!"

In an instant, a blinding flash of electricity hits me and everything goes white.


	16. Chapter 15: Institutionalized

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 **Dakota Michelson**

 **A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction**

Chapter 15: Institutionalized

My vision starts to clear and feeling is restored to my body. I realize I'm standing in a strange room with a doorway directly in front of me. I move into the room and already I can see that this is technologically superior to anything in the Commonwealth. I look around, suspicious that there would be cameras or something monitoring this room, but I don't see any. There's a terminal facing the room I had just left. "How convenient!" I think to myself. I walk towards it and I hear footsteps coming down the hall.

I run to the closets hiding spot I can find, an area that appears to be for storage, and hope that they don't come over here. I hear them sit in the chair in front of the terminal. I wait patiently for them to leave. It's not long before I hear them get up and walk back down the hall.

I get up and look at the terminal to find an access log. It just says "Error, Signal Re-routed". I wonder if they know that there's an intruder based on this. It's pretty vague of a message. Maybe another courser was trying to return back at the same time? I quickly pop in Ingram's holotape and begin the scan. While it's scanning, I constantly am looking over my shoulder, paranoid. The holotape finishes and I eject it.

I walk down the hall and what looks to be an elevator with glass walls. If I get in here, will everyone be able to see me? Without much of a choice, I proceed to walk towards it when a voice blares on the intercom.

"Hello."

I look around, alarmed.

"I wondered if you might make it here. You're quite resourceful. Unfortunately for you, we were aware of your plan well before your arrival."

There's a pause. I'm not sure what to even do at this point, so I stay still.

"I'm known as Father. The Institute is under my guidance. I'd like to discuss a few things with you, face-to-face. But first, I'll need you to drop your weapons where you are and proceed towards the elevator."

I'm hesitant. He's probably going to send a bunch of synths after me and I'm done for.

"Dakota, that wasn't a request. I'm sure by now, you know you're outnumbered. If you drop your weapons now, I can guarantee you'll be unharmed."

My heart is pounding. How much does he know about me? I slowly bend down and put my laser rifle on the ground. The glass casing around the elevator spins, allowing me to enter. "Please proceed to the elevator," Father says.

I step in and the elevator "closes" and starts to lower. The walls outside the elevator are just black now and I can't see anything but the lights in the elevator.

"I can only imagine what you've heard," the voice says. "What you think of us. I'd like to show you that you may have the wrong impression." Maxson warned me against this. Next, they will try to turn me against the Brotherhood, I bet.

All of a sudden the darkness passes and I see a very large and tall room. I see what looks like it's supposed to replicate the sky. There are hallways and lights all around me.

"Welcome to the Institute."

As the elevator continues to lower, I see trees, rooms, balconies, a few grassy areas, a waterfall under the ground on all sides of me. This place... it's amazing.

"This is the reality of Institute. This place, these people, the work we do. For over a hundred years, we've dedicated ourselves to humanity's survival. Decades of research, countless experiments and trials. A shared vision of how science can help shape the future. It has never been easy, and our actions are often misinterpreted by those above ground. Someday, perhaps, we can show them what we've accomplished. But for now, we must remain underground. There's too much at stake here to risk it all. As you've seen, things above are unstable. I'd like to talk to you about what we can do… for everyone."

I snap out of it when he says this, and remember he is trying to trick me. The elevator descends into another hallway and the door opens.

I walk down the hallway to see another elevator. I look around and there appears to be no other way to go, so I step in. The door closes and rises upwards, but just for a short time. Probably just one story.

The door opens and I step out. There's a room surrounded by glass and there's a young boy inside of the room. I approach the glass wall cautiously and look around. I can't help but wonder if this child was kidnapped from the Commonwealth. I kneel down so I am at eye level with the child.

"Are you from the Commonwealth?" I ask the child.

"No," the child says. "Who are you?"

"Dakota…" I say. I'm suspicious now that this is some sort of trap. "Where is everyone?"

"Father! What's going on? What's happening?" the boy yells.

The door to the right of the cell opens and an old man in a lab coat walks through. He says, "Shaun. S9-23 Recall Code Cirrus." The boy closes his eyes and goes limp. "Fascinating, but disappointing. The child's responses were not at all what I anticipated. He's a prototype, you understand. We're only just now beginning to explore the effects of extreme emotional stimuli. Let's start anew. I am Father."

"Father?" I ask. "That's your name?"

"'Father' is my unofficial title," he says. "It's what I've come to mean to the people of the Institute. My DNA became the synthetic organics used to create every human-like synth you see today. I am their Father. Through Science, we are family."

"So you're in charge of the Institute?" I ask.

"I am the acting Director, yes," he says. "I spent decades working to reach this point. It's a responsibility I take very seriously. The Institute… It's important. It really is humanity's best hope for the future, no matter what those above ground might think of us. Ultimately the Commonwealth has nothing to fear from us. Whatever you've seen or heard, I know I can convince you of that. Dakota, the Institute is on the verge of some important breakthroughs. I know of your technical expertise and fascination, your unfortunate incident in Vault 111 that led you to this world, and your knowledge that you've obtained in the Commonwealth to this point. Your presence would be… appreciated as we approach those breakthroughs. You could have a new life here, away from all of the dangers of the Commonwealth. What do you say?"

I knew it… He is trying to get me to stay here and help them! As I try to figure out my options, I realize I don't have very many and so I decide to play along, just until I have what I need and escape.

"This is a lot to take in," I say. "But… I'll try to be open-minded and see how it works out."

"I understand. I simply ask that you give the Institute a chance to show you what I've been telling you is true. We really do have humanity's best interest at heart. For now, I'd like you to take some time and get to know the Institute. Meet the people you'll be working with. You'll want to introduce yourself to the Division Heads: Doctor Fillmore in Facilities, Doctor Ayo in the SRB… ah, Doctor Holdren in BioScience, and finally Doctor Li in Advanced Systems. They've all been notified of your arrival, of course. Meet them, and then we'll discuss what comes next."

Doctor Li? Honestly, this situation can't get much better! He's leading me right to her. I decide to meet either Doctor Fillmore or Doctor Ayo first, then Doctor Holdren. I will try to find the cure for Virgil's condition while I'm there, as I promised to do. Then I will meet Doctor Li and convince her to leave with me to join the Brotherhood.

Father directs me to the door and gives me directions to go downstairs to get to each division. I head downstairs and overhear a conversation.

"As far as I'm concerned, the phase-out on these older models can't come soon enough." "Oh I don't know. Most of them have lasted long past their projected lifespans. If you ask me, they were built pretty well." "I can't argue with that. Even so, I'm ready to see the full gen-3 rollout." I find the source of the conversation and see two women and an older model synth. "There we go. All set. Unit, you can return to duty."

A woman in a white and yellow outfit walks up to me. "We don't usually welcome outsiders. I hope you can appreciate your good fortune. I'm Allie Fillmore. You can think of me as the Institute's Chief Engineer." I put a forced smile on and say, "Dakota. Nice to meet you." She continues, "as you might guess, the Facilities division keeps the Institute's mechanical and electrical systems running smoothly. We maintain and upgrade all of the systems that make it possible to live and work in a place like this. There's a lot of machinery behind these walls that recycles the air and water and provides power to the laboratories and quarters. The work we do might not be as exciting as some of the other departments, but it's at least as important. Now, did you have any questions regarding the Facilities division?"

I did genuinely have tons of questions that interested me about this place. Why not go ahead and find out?

"Who built this place, originally?" I ask. "Has it been here long?"

"The construction of the Institute is the work of generations of scientists. The original survivors of the war took refuge in the basement of the old Commonwealth Institute of Technology. We have since gone underground further and have sealed off the connection of the old CIT building. It's a process that's still going on today. Even now, we're digging out tunnels for new facilities and infrastructure. Just think what this place will look like a hundred years from now. I hope I'm there to see it."

"To see it? How? Are you going to freeze yourself?"

"Oh. I've probably said too much. Why don't you meet with the other division heads? I'm sure we'll be seeing each other soon," she said as she walks away.

Hmmm…. That's a bit suspicious. I wonder if they have some way to prolong people's lives.

I look right and see a bright red sign that reads BIOSCIENCE. I guess it's time to find that cure.


	17. Chapter 16: FEV and Dr Li

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 **Dakota Michelson**

 **A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction**

Chapter 16: FEV and Dr. Li

I walk into the door labeled BIOSCIENCE. The first thing I notice is the smell of the plants in the room. It's comforting. I look over and see two men talking. "Those people are the last remnants of a dying past. It's best not to dwell on the subject," one of them says. I already don't like this guy. The other man says, "They're still people, and they're suffering. We can at least admit that it's regrettable." I'm glad there are some people who care even a little bit in here. He continues, "After all, how can we hope to redefine mankind if we can't even hold on to our own humanity?" The arrogant one replies, "Well, that's a question best left to our colleagues in the Robotics division." When the time comes, he might just be the first person I shoot.

The arrogant man sees me and walks over. "Welcome! So good to have you here. Doctor Clayton Holdren, head of the BioScience division." Great. Of course he is the guy I'm supposed to meet with. "I can't wait for you to see the work we're doing. It's truly amazing." "I'm very interested to learn more about it," I respond. With any luck, he may lead me right to Virgil's cure.

"Great! As the name implies, the BioScience division specializes in fields of study such as botany, genetics, and medicine." He begins to walk around, giving me a tour I guess. "Our most important directive is to ensure the health and well-being of everyone in the Institute. To that end, we cultivate highly specialized breeds of flora for use in food and medicine." All I can think about when he says this is how badly the Commonwealth needs food and medicine. As we walk around, I keep an eye open for a serum of some sort. But I don't see anything. "We've even started to explore the idea of synthetic animal life." We walk over to a window to a room containing two gorillas. "The gorillas are synths?" I ask. "They are indeed. They're really just a pet project at this point, but the potential is exciting nonetheless." A woman approaches us and says, "Doctor Holdren?" He looks over to her. "Yes?" "Can I have a word with you?" she asks. Holdren looks at me and excuses himself.

I look over to the right and see a dark hallway with blue lasers barring the entrance. I wonder what that is. I walk over to the terminal next to it. There's a large wall behind me which provides the perfect cover for me to investigate. The terminal appears to be locked pretty tightly, but I unlock it quickly. The terminal reads "The FEV Laboratory is a potential biohazard area and has been sealed. Access to this section of the facility is prohibited. Requests for more information can be sent in triplicate to our records department." I continue to hack the terminal and find that it is directly linked to the laser grid. They made this too easy! The lasers disappear and I quickly sneak on the other side. There's a terminal in the short hallway that I use to turn the lasers back on to avoid suspicion.

I head in and see large green vats containing super mutants. "What the hell?" I say. Is the Institute responsible for the creation of super mutants? Or maybe they were just trying to cure it? I look around the room and find several shelves, chairs, and other objects fallen over. Virgil escaping must have caused quite a scene. I found a holotape on one of the consoles. I look around for a terminal and sure enough there is one. I power it on and see that it was once Virgil's computer. I insert the holotape and it begins to play.

"This is Doctor Elliott, reporting for the BioScience division. March 2224. We just received another batch of… subjects… but as my previous report stated, we're at an impasse here. More of the same won't help. The two most promising strains of FEV have been adapted to an ideal state, but we're still missing something. I am officially echoing the team's position: the most like progress for our research on synthetic organics requires new avenues of exploration. Additional Commonwealth subjects will not help. It's the same problem across the board: exposure to too much radiation. We need something–someone new. There's a proposal we'll be putting forward. I am not entirely comfortable with it, but it seems the best course."

This would explain the kidnappings in the Commonwealth. How horrible! They must have been turning them into super mutants for their synth program.

There's another holotape right next to the terminal, so I plug that one in also.

"Personal record, Dr. Brian Virgil. This will likely be my last recording." He sounds human here. "My requests to shut down the FEV program have repeatedly been denied. We've learned nothing useful in the last 10 years. Why does Father insist on continuing it? If he won't see reason, then I have to take matters into my own hands. What we're doing… it's not right. It needs to stop. If anyone should find this after… after I'm gone… know that I never wanted to hurt anyone. Anyone! Do you understand me? I'm going to make sure the whole program is shut down. If not for good, then at least for years to come. After that… I know what I'm about to do will be seen as betrayal. Treason, he'll probably call it. So… I'm leaving. I have a plan… and if it works, I'll be somewhere safe. Somewhere not even the Coursers can find me. Everything that we've done, the lives we've taken… if there is a god, may he have mercy on us all."

"Wow," I say to myself. Virgil sacrificed his humanity, left the safety and comfort of the Institute to make sure this program was shut down. I look around the room and see that pretty much everything has been trashed. But there is one counter that still has intact equipment on top. Inside the large vile is some sort of serum. This must be Virgil's cure. I take it and stuff it in my bag. I've been gone for long enough and there may even be people looking for me. I need to sneak out of here.

I get out, deactivate the laser grid and then reactivate it from the other side quickly. No one is around here. Good. I see Holdren is inside another room with a window. But he is looking away. Now is my chance.

I head out into the main room of the Institute. I'm surprised by the lack of security in the BioScience department and wonder if it will be this easy to sneak around here.

Now for the real mission: Doctor Li. According to Father, she is in the Advanced Systems lab. I walk in and two scientists are looking at a room through a window. "She's been at it for over two hours. What is she even testing?" one of them says. "Nothing. At this point, she is just doing it for fun." I look over to the right and see a woman in the next room. I walk in and she says, "Oh, it's you. You're not authorized to be here." "I… didn't know I needed authorization." I say. "Hm! Father may have given you the keys to the castle, but this is still my laboratory," she says. "If you plan to stay down here with us, you need to learn how things work." "I can talk with you another time if you'd like," I say. She retorts, "So you can interrupt me twice? No thanks." "What a bitch!" I think to myself. "Well you're obviously here for reason and you've already spoiled my experiment, so you might as well spit it out."

"I was sent by a certain group that would like to ask for your expertise." I say. "Stop beating around the bush. It's obvious that you're from the Brotherhood of Steel. I knew it was just a matter of time before your people would track me down. I've been looking over my shoulder from almost a decade, waiting for them to send someone like you to kill me."

"What? No!" I said. "Why would we want you dead?" She says, "I did some pretty sensitive work for the Brotherhood of Steel. Even though Lyons let me go, there were a few others in the ranks that thought I knew too much. That's why I came to the Institute. It was the only place that I thought I'd be out of the Brotherhood's reach and still be able to do my research. Since Father trusts you, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt. I might not agree with everything he says, but I know he'd never allow harm to come my way. So say what you came here to say, and then leave me alone."

I get the impression that she may be more like Virgil as far as Father's plans are concerned. "I get the sense you and Father have some issues. Are you unhappy here?" She chuckles and walks over to the door and closes it. "You'd think being surrounded by cutting edge laboratory equipment and some of the greatest minds the world's ever known would be enough. Only problem is the lack of transparency. I don't think we get the full story on everything that occurs down here. What does that have to do with why we're talking?"

"The Brotherhood needs your help, Doctor." I say. "Needs my help?" she asks. "Why? They seemed to have everything under control when I left." "Did you have any unfinished work you left behind?" I ask her. "You should know better than to ask me that," she says. "If they didn't tell you what I was working on, they didn't want you to know. Tell me something. Why would I possibly want to come crawling back to the Brotherhood and throw away everything I've accomplished here?"

"You know just as well as I do that the Institute is up to something. I know that because I know Doctor Virgil," I say. "How is that even possible?" she said. "I also found this in his lab," I say as I give her the holotape I found earlier.

"Well," she says. "You know more than I thought you knew then. He didn't agree with Father's continuation of the FEV project and so he sabotaged it and left. The official report said he was killed in a lab accident and Father had the lab sealed due to contamination. I wanted to help with the investigation, for appearances, but Father had the laboratory sealed saying that it was contaminated. Father lied to us all. But I knew the truth. All these years of loyalty has been for nothing." I say, "Father doesn't deserve to have you here. The Brotherhood needs you."

"I came to the Institute to get away from the Brotherhood… from the whole world. I just wanted to do my research in peace. Father took me in and gave me access to cutting edge technology that I only dreamed existed. I became jaded. I thought the Institute cared. That they wanted to better mankind. Maybe in their own twisted way, they still do. But if you can't trust the people you're working for, then it's all pointless. Who knows what else they've been lying about. Or what their plans are for my work. Meet me in here tonight at midnight." She walks over to a drawer and pulls out a round contraption. "Here", she says and takes my arm. She slides the contraption on and buckles it. "It's a Pip-Boy. An old friend from before had it, until he died. It's been modified to be able to relay in and out of the Institute at will. We will leave together at that time. I'm trusting that the Brotherhood will protect me if the Institute decides to send a Courser after me, you understand?" "Of course," I say.

She has a faint smile on her face and says, "The Brotherhood of Steel has just regained the services of Doctor Madison Li."


End file.
